


Don't you, forget about me

by GetLostAK



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Riverdale (TV) Fusion, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Gang, Requited Unrequited Love, Southside Serpent Jughead Jones, Time Jump, love rekindled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:28:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 38
Words: 76,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26077978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GetLostAK/pseuds/GetLostAK
Summary: Betty left Riverdale for college in Boston, but after a tragic accident she finds herself back in her hometown sooner than she had planned. With growing tensions between the Southside Serpents and the Ghoulies, Betty must navigate her way out of the crosshairs and back into Jughead Jones's life. Don't forget to leave a review. *I do not own the rights to Riverdale/characters.*
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 47
Kudos: 53





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading my first FanFic. This is an AU Bughead story and it’s a long one, but I always love a slow burn and some action scenes. Rated M for violence, language, and smut. Please leave a review. 
> 
> *I do not own the rights to Riverdale or the characters of Riverdale or the Archie Comics.*

Betty had always planned on returning to Riverdale, but she hadn’t planned on it happening so soon. She had thought she would come back on her own terms, but her mother’s accident expedited her plans. She had graduated a year ago and had been working in the emergency department at the hospital near her school in Boston since then.

Betty left Riverdale to study journalism, but after one semester, she found that jobs would continue to be few and far between and she needed a backup career if she was going to be able to survive. She double majored in journalism and nursing, which was not easy to balance at the time, but had since proven to be a great decision on her part. She had always felt the need to take care of the people around her and becoming a nurse allowed her to do that and make a living. Luckily, she was able to pick up freelance gigs at the local newspaper when she wanted. Life was going well; she had graduated college, had an apartment she could afford, a few friends at work, a job, and the ability to continue to write when she wanted.

Everything changed when she got the call from FP earlier that day. Her mother, Alice, had been in a car accident while she was at work and it didn’t look good. Betty and her mother had a tumultuous relationship growing up. Alice had controlled everything about Betty’s life, but it did prepare Betty to be the high achiever she was. Alice had always wanted to project the image of a perfect step ford family and controlled everything about Betty’s life from what she ate, to how she dress, to her hairstyle, to her shade of lipstick. Alice set strict curfews, and chose her extracurricular activities based on what would help her get into college.

Her mother didn’t loosen the reigns until Betty had proven to her time and again that she was her own person and would not follow in her older sister’s footsteps and end up in rehab. After Betty left for college, she was able to repair and rebuild the relationship she had with her mother. They would call each other every Sunday and her mother would visit her a few times a year in Boston as it was more difficult for Betty to get away from school to come home to Riverdale.

After Betty’s father was killed during her junior year of high school, Alice had rekindled her relationship with her high-school sweetheart, FP. FP had come so far in the last few years with sobriety, becoming sheriff, and cutting ties with his abusive ex-wife. Other than his kids, Alice had become his whole world and she stood by him when no one else would. During Betty’s senior year, FP and his kids moved in with her and her Mother. Betty remembered how excited her mother was when they changed the answering machine message from the “Cooper Household” to the “Cooper-Jones Household.”

Betty had always loved FP and was happy when he had moved in their home. He was loving and supportive and provided her mother with the love and affection she had never fully received from Betty’s father. FP was a strong man who had been on both sides of the law as the sheriff of Riverdale as well as the King of the Southside Serpents motorcycle gang. On this day though, FP sounded distant and injured. She could hear the heartbreak in FP’s voice when he called. She needed to go home.

Betty had called her boss to let her know she would be gone and then booked a flight home. She was packing her duffle bag when her phone rang and the friendly face of her best friend, Veronica Lodge, flashed on the screen.

“Betty! I just heard what happened. Are you okay?” Veronica asked.

“I’ve been better. I’m packing now so I can head back to help FP and be with my mother,” Betty replied, her voice tight in her chest. Saying the words out loud was harder than she had expected.

“I saw him earlier today. He looked like he was in a daze. Is there anything I can do?”

“I’ve been worried about him since he called. He sounded so out of it on the phone. I’m looking forward to seeing him and Jellybean though. I don’t want him to have to make all these decisions on his own.”

“Just FP and Jellybean? What about You-Know-Who? I’m not sure you’ll be able to avoid him the whole time.”

“I’ve been trying to not think about it. Theres just so much history there and so many things that weren’t said, but I’m not sure I’m ready to say them and this isn’t really the time for me to hash it out with him.”

“Just take it day by day. I’ll make sure Archie doesn’t say anything to him about you coming back. Then you can approach the subject in your own time, if you decide you want to. What time do you get in?” Veronica asked.

“I land at 10 pm.”

“Okay, let me come pick you up. I insist. I’ve missed you!”

“That would be great. And will save me renting a car.”

“Then I will see you at 10. Text me your flight info.”

“Thanks V.”

Betty finished packing and left a note for her neighbor who had agreed to come and water her plants while she was gone. Looking around her small apartment, she realized most of her belongings, aside from furniture and her plants, could fit in one duffle bag. The things she was leaving behind were just things. She turned out the lights and locked up her apartment and left for the airport, her heart heavy and unaware of how hard the next few days would be on her.

______________________________________________________________________________

Jughead Jones rinsed the blood from his knuckles in the small apartment above the Whyte Wyrm that served as the clubhouse for the Southside Serpents. One of the small jobs that the Serpents took had meant that Jughead had spent his Sunday evening roughing up some 20 year old kid who had tried to pull a fast one over on some small-time local criminal type who didn’t want to do his dirty work himself. These weren’t the types of jobs Jughead enjoyed, but they were a means to an end and it brought in money to the motorcycle club and the Serpent family.

He had been born into the lifestyle as his parents were both Southside Serpent members, his father, FP, being the leader for over ten years. The throne was handed down to Jughead when he was 16 after FP was in prison for, surprisingly, a crime he didn’t commit. Jughead had always envisioned himself going off to college and settling down with his best friend and high school sweetheart, Betty Cooper, but like most things in his life, nothing went to plan.

With his father in jail, his mother and sister gone, and Jughead finding himself on his own at 16, the Serpents became his surrogate family until his father and sister would return home to Riverdale. His childhood friendships remained, but his new friendships were exciting to him. Instead of being the angsty weird loner with a chip on his shoulder while attending school on the Northside of Riverdale, he was popular and looked up to on the Southside.

This Sunday night was no different than most nights over the past few years for Jughead. He finished washing the blood off his knuckles, changed into a fresh shirt, and went down to the bar to meet up with his friends and have a beer. His sharp angled features and dark green eyes were firm. He tried to keep a wall up between him and those not in his inner circle. His dark curls snuck out from under his dark crown beanie he had been wearing since he was ten. He tapped his fingers on the bar, waiting for another round to be brought out for himself and his friends.

While he stood there waiting, he was approached by a dark haired girl in tight leather pants and a cropped leather vest. She was like most of the Serpent women: tough, edgy, and a little worse for the wear.

“You want to buy me a drink?” She flirted with him, leaning against the bar making her cleavage look better than it deserved.

“Not particularly,” he told her coldly, not even glancing her direction. Betty had been the only girl he had ever been seen with and he chose to remain a lone wolf since she made her exit years before.

She stuck her lip out to pout. “Suit yourself, King. I could have kept you company.”

Jughead grabbed his beer and walked out the doors that lead to the back parking lot of the bar. He found a spot in a dimly lit corner and lit a cigarette, enjoying a break from the noise and the stifling amount of people pressed together. After finishing his smoke, he returned to the bar to return his empty bottle and head back upstairs to his small apartment. He knew he had early business to attend to and just wanted to drown out all the noise and go to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Betty’s flight landed right on time and Veronica met her at the baggage claim.

“B!” She exclaimed as she rushed to her friend’s side and wrapped her in the biggest hug Veronica’s body would allow.

“Thank you for picking me up, V. It means a ton that you would drive all this way.”

“Don’t be silly. You would do the same for me. And this way I get you all to myself for at least an hour before I have to share you with everyone else. I miss my B and V time!”

“I know what you mean. Phone calls and FaceTime just aren’t the same as being able to hang out with you. I’m sorry I’ve been so busy.”

“I get it. Things change. I’m just happy you’re home. Now where is you bag?” Veronica asked.

The baggage claim turnstile started and Betty’s duffle slid down to the conveyor belt. Betty leaned down to pick it up and sling it over her shoulder. She could feel Veronica eyeing her tattered bag.

“Well that gives me an idea on what I can get you for your birthday,” Veronica told her. “Something a little more classy and timeless.”

It was an hours drive from the airport to Riverdale. Betty settled into the soft warm leather seats of Veronica’s car and listened while she talked a mile a minute, filling Betty in on all the new local drama. She left Riverdale five years ago, and hadn’t visited in the last two, but it seemed like so much had changed.

Betty’s stomach growled.

“Did you eat dinner on the plane?” Veronica asked, herself hungry and in need of something sweet and greasy.

“No, I’m starving. Do you want to stop and get a milkshake for old-time’s sake?”

“Well duh,” Veronica snickered. “I’ve been thinking about a chocolate shake since you got off the plane.”

Veronica headed towards Pop’s Chocklit Shop. It was just as Betty remembered it. The 50’s style diner was their favorite place to hang out while they were in school. She spent countless hours in there studying, celebrating, and just enjoying time with her friends. The small bell by the door rang as the women entered the restaurant and Pop Tate, the long time owner, looked up with a smile that only widened when he saw Betty.

“Betty Cooper!” He exclaimed. “It’s been too long. I’ll bring you girls a menu.”

“Thanks Pop. I just got back into town and I felt it was only appropriate to start my trip by visiting you and my favorite restaurant.”

Pop Tate beamed at the women and handed them menus. Nothing had really changed. The restaurant and menu were the same. The smell of grease and onion rings had Betty’s mouth watering. They ordered milkshakes and burgers and settled into the booth they had sat at hundreds of times before.

“What time is FP expecting you?” Veronica asked.

“I’m not sure. I should probably text him and let him know I’m here,” Betty said. “I think in all the rush today I may have forgotten to tell him when I was getting in.”

“You are always welcome to stay with Archie and I if you want,” Veronica promised.

Betty took out her phone and sent FP a text.

**_Betty:_ ** _Veronica picked me up at the airport. Are you doing okay?_

**_FP:_ ** _Visiting hours ended at the hospital a few hours ago. I’m at the house. Come over when you’re ready. Jelly Bean has been asking when she would see you._

**_Betty:_ ** _I will be there in about 30 minutes. See you then._

Betty and Veronica talked and laughed over their meal like no time had passed at all. Veronica gushed about Archie and his recent proposal and how she wanted a spring wedding.They had moved into an apartment near the community center gym Archie ran, but were looking at real-estate in the area. Veronica had continued her maple rum business with their classmate Cheryl and it had taken off in ways that helped the socialite break away from her family’s darker business dealings without messing with the lifestyle she had grown accustomed to. Betty talked about her job in the emergency department and found the faces Veronica made at some of the more gruesome parts of her job funny.

“So tell me more. You got out of here. What are your friends like? What do you do for fun?” Veronica asked. “How’s your love life?”

There it was. The question she figured was coming. Betty shook it off, her blonde ponytail sweeping her shoulders.

“My friends are mostly co-workers. I meet a few at the gym for classes and we go out to dinner when our schedules line up. But I still spend a lot of time reading and the local newspaper lets me freelance as I please. My life is really pretty boring.”

“What? Betty Cooper isn’t trying to solve mysteries anymore?”

“I haven’t had much time, and honestly, I see so much crazy stuff in the emergency department that it makes me nervous to go out on my own. Boston is a big city.”

“That’s understandable. Whats the night life like?,” Veronica asked as she leaned across the table and taking a long draw on the straw in her milkshake.

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve only gone out a few times with a guy from work but it hasn’t ever developed into anything other than a few drinks at a local dive bar.”

“So are you saying you don’t have a boyfriend?”

There was a guy Betty had seen on and off for the last year. He was an EMT in the area but it wasn’t ever serious. In fact, he might have been one of the cockiest and yet dullest people she had ever met. He had a God complex and spent his free time lifting weights and taking selfies in the gym mirror. “I would have to say no.”

“You paused,” Veronica noted. “Spill the beans.”

“There is a guy I’ve gone out with on and off for the past few months. Nick. But it’s not serious. And we really don’t have a ton in common other than seeing each other at work sometimes.”

“Does he know you’re here?”

“It’s not that kind of relationship, V,” Betty replied. “I don’t even know why I go out with him honestly.”

Veronica frowned. “Well, it’s only time until You-Know-Who finds out you’re here,” Veronica said, lifting a questioning eyebrow to Better. “Especially if you’re spending time with your mother and his father. It’s going to be hard to keep it from him. You ready for that conversation?”

“I’ll deal with Jug when I have to. I want to do it on my own terms. Please tell Archie not to say anything.”

“Of course, B. I think FP will probably tell him before any of us do though.”

“I’m really hoping he doesn’t,” Betty told her.


	3. Chapter 3

Veronica pulled up to Betty’s childhood home close to midnight. The lights were on by the front door and a welcoming glow warmed the windows.

“You sure you don’t want me to go in with you?” Veronica asked.

“I’m good. I need some time with FP,” Betty assured her. “I’ll text you in the morning, okay?”

Veronica nodded and Betty got out of the car, slinging her duffle bag over her shoulder, and walking up the steps to the red front door. She knocked and the door opened. A very tired looking FP greeted her with open arms and pulled her into the house.

“Betty!” He wrapped his arms around her and swung her around like she was still a teenager. “JB! Get down here!”

Betty looked beyond FP and saw Jelly Bean bouncing down the stairs towards her and wrapped her in a hug.

“I’m sorry its so late. My flight didn’t get in until 10 and then Veronica and I stopped to get dinner.”

“Don’t even worry about it,” FP told her, pulling her in for another hug. She had missed him.

“How’s mom doing? How are you doing?” She asked, concern in her eyes. They walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa. FP ran his hands down his face as he often did when he was stressed.

“JB why don’t you take Betty’s bag upstairs,” he said, waiting for Jelly Bean to be out of earshot. “It’s not good Betty. She was coming back from a convention with one of her coworkers and got hit head on and was thrown from the vehicle. Her coworker was driving and got out alive, but Alice is hooked up to all kinds of stuff and she’s not waking up.”

There were tears in his eyes and his voice was shaky. “I’m afraid this is it,” he spit out as he couldn’t hold back the tears anymore, hiding his face in his hands.

Betty moved closer to him and wrapped her arms around him, rubbing her hand up and down his back to soothe him.

“We can go first thing in the morning. I need to see her,” she told him. “Lets just take it one day at a time,” she assured him, but she wasn’t sure she believed her own words.

“We should probably all get some sleep. You’re probably exhausted after working all night and then flying today,” he reasoned. “You know, for not being able to do anything to help while I’m there with her, I am exhausted,” FP said. “Your old room is ready for you up there.”

“I don’t mind getting a hotel if it’s easier on you guys.”

“It will be nice to have you back in the house. All my kids back here together,” he smiled through the tears. Betty’s own father was an abusive asshole. When FP moved into their home, it was like this heavy, suffocating presence was gone and had been replaced with FP’s hearty laugh and infective, toothy smiles.

“I’m not sure we can get them all back together. I didn’t tell Jug I was coming. I haven’t heard from him in over a year FP. I doubt he has much to say to me at all,” Betty confessed, looking down at her shoes.

“I didn’t tell him either. I was going to let you tell him you were here when you were ready. But I’m not sure how long I can keep it a secret. This is a very small town, Betty.”

“I understand. I just need to focus on my mother right now,” she stated. She gave FP a final hug and headed up the stairs to her old room.

It was exactly as she imagined it would be. Pink walls, pink bedding, white ornate furniture. It would be the perfect princess bedroom if she was still 6 years old and not 23. Betty had begged Alice to let her change it when she was a teen, but her mother would not have it. Betty had so many memories in this room, although most of them did involve Jughead Jones. It was strange being back after this long.

Betty unpacked her duffle bag. However, opening her dresser drawers, she found clothing in half of them. Jughead’s clothing. The closet was also full of his things. She half expected to see his things in the bathroom as well, but found only a few items she assumed were his in a bottom drawer. _I should have known he would still have stuff here, she said to herself._

Jughead was FP’s son and Jelly Bean’s older brother. He was also Betty’s high school sweetheart. It wasn’t fair to call him that, he had meant more to her than that. He was her best friend, confidant, and protector. The term soulmate would have beenmore appropriate if she was being honest with herself. When they were younger, they moved like magnets. They moved together, no matter how small the motion. They had been drawn together since they were young. Betty had questioned many times if she was his anchor of if he was hers.

They grew up together and had been inseparable since kindergarten. It was Archie, Jughead and Betty against the world for years. Best friends who did everything together. When they got to high school, Veronica moved to town and joined their close group of friends and fell for Archie.

Betty meant the world to Jughead and vice versa. They were their best selves when they were together. That is probably why Betty leaving changed everything she and Jughead had ever known. She wasn’t ready to re-live those moments of heartbreak. She knew she destroyed him, but she doubted if he had ever realized how much she had put herself through. She spent months crying herself to sleep, unable to eat, and making herself sick with anxiety. She had enough to deal with right now. She wasn’t ready to try to finish an argument they had started two years ago.

FP and Alice had fallen for each other hard after Betty’s father was killed. It wasn’t long before FP and the Jone’s children moved in with Alice and Betty. Jelly Bean took Betty’s sister’s room and Alice and FP were weirdly okay with Jughead and Betty sharing a room and a bed. Jughead had spent almost every night for a year sneaking into Betty’s room when FP had started drinking again and couldn’t provide him with a safe place to live. Alice, reeling in her husband’s death, walked into Betty’s room one night in a wine induced stupor and found Jughead and Betty asleep. Betty remembered waking up to her mother standing in her doorway and mumbling something about karma and then telling her that the Jughead shaped shadow in her bed better not be there in the morning.

Alice found out later that Jughead had been sneaking in fairly consistently for about a year, but Betty assured her he was only sleeping there and they weren’t fooling around. Which was true for a time. Betty and Jughead spent many nights together in their not so distant youth, which never made Alice happy, but she came to tolerate it more after she rekindled her love with FP.

Betty and Jughead knew it was a weird dynamic and that most kids their age in love didn’t live together and that it sometimes made their relationship mature faster in ways their friends hadn’t yet. They didn’t mind though. Betty liked being able to wake up next to Jughead everyday and he liked not climbing in through a window every night.

It was easier for their parents to know where they were, which was even easier as they had, in true control freak Alice Cooper fashion, taken the door off the hinges to Betty’s room. Alice continued to wake the two teens up early every morning and popped in every night while they were sleeping to make sure nothing was going on under her nose that she didn’t know about. Alice had grown to love both of FP’s children over the years, showing them both the attention their own mother had refused to provide them.

Much to Betty’s chagrin, it looked as if someone had put the door back on the hinges since she was here last. She valued having some privacy. Betty put her things away and took a shower before bed. She slipped into a tank top and shorts and climbed into her very pink bed.

She laid there with the lights off, thinking about how she had not planned to be back in her childhood room when she had gotten off work this morning, how so many things had changed in an instant, and how the sheets smelled like Jughead. She breathed in the masculine scent and felt a knot tighten in her stomach. _Damnit Jug,_ she thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep.

———————————————————————————————————————

It was a normal late Sunday night at the Whyte Wyrm. It wasn’t too busy but it wasn’t dead. Jughead Jones was focused on beating his second in command, Sweet Pea, at pool for the third time that night. He nursed a beer as he watched Sweet Pea line up his shot and miss.

“Hey Boss!” Fangs called out to Jughead as he entered the dark Southside Serpent bar. “You’re never gonna guess who just rolled up into town.”

Jughead’s green eyes darkened and threw back the rest of his whiskey. They had been having trouble with the Ghoulies trying to expand their territory into the Serpents and to top it off, a deal with the Disciples had gone bad in the last week and Jughead was waiting for retaliation to strike. “Who?” He asked with his deep, gravely voice.

Fangs could feel Jughead’s emerald gaze piercing through him. He knew the club was under some heat and he knew Jughead was probably fearing the worst and ready to jump into action.Fangs looked back at his leader and said, “Cooper.”


	4. Chapter 4

Betty woke up at 6 am. She put on some sweats and a t-shirt and slipped on her running shoes. With her headphones in place, she took off down her childhood street. She had gotten use to starting her day this way as a way to handle the stress of her job. Over the past few years, she had started running farther just because she enjoyed the time she had with her thoughts. She did some of her best thinking while out on a run. And with the day she suspected she was about to have, she decided she needed some early morning endorphins to get her going.

It was 7:30 when she got back. She stood in the kitchen drinking a glass of water as FP walked in.

“Up early I see,” he said, strolling towards the coffee pot and pouring himself a mug. He still looked exhausted despite sleeping.

“I couldn’t sleep and figured I would get my workout in this morning if I could. I didn’t want to wake anyone up,” she assured him.

“This is still your house too. You can come and go as you please Betty,” he told her. “You up for some breakfast? We have to be at the hospital in about an hour.”

“That would be great,” she said. “I’m going to go get a shower real quick.”

“I’ll work on breakfast and then we can head out in about 45 minutes.”

Betty ran up the stairs to her bedroom, stripped and got in the shower. She stood there with her hands on the wall and her forehead resting against the tile as the warm water ran down her back. The run helped clear her head but she wasn’t sure she was ready to deal with whatever the day would throw her way. She eventually pulled herself back to reality and turned off the shower, dressed, and finished getting ready for the day.

She pulled on black skinny jeans, ankle boots, and a gray sweater. Gone were the days of the pastel dominated wardrobe that Alice had once demanded of her. Instead of the tight ponytail her mother insisted she wear, Betty left her hair down. Her blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders and ended in loose curls.

Unlike her clothes and hairstyle, her makeup hadn’t changed much since high school. She opted for mascara to make her bright green eyes pop and simple pink lipgloss. Sure she was known to do herself up a little more for a night out on the town, but her everyday staples were enough to make her feel put together.

FP had made pancakes and Jelly Bean was already eating when she went downstairs. FP handed her a plate with pancakes on them.

FP hadn’t changed much in the time she was gone. He was tall with broad shoulders. He wore stubble on his face and bags under his eyes. When he wasn’t in his Sheriff uniform, he opted for dark jeans, black leather boots, a t-shirt and his black leather Southside Serpent jacket. He walked a fine line between Sheriff and ex-gang leader. Jughead had taken over the title of Serpent King when FP had decided to go straight, but FP was still an active member when he could be.

The South Side Serpents had a bad reputation for quite a while, but from what Veronica had told her, they had done more good than bad for the community in the last few years. Betty was happy about that fact, because while the serpents weren’t bad people, she knew they sometimes had to do bad things. She shuddered when she thought about some of the bad things she did when she was a member.

They ate their breakfast and Jelly Bean filled Betty in on school and the colleges she was applying for. It was still strange to think she would be going to college in a year. Betty hadn’t felt like she had been away for so long, but Jelly Bean had grown up ten fold in the past few years.

FP tossed a set of keys to Betty.

“You might as well use Alice’s car while you’re here. Walking around town probably won’t be as liberating for you now as it was when you were a teenager,” he joked.

FP and Betty drove separately to the hospital; Betty in her mother’s SUV and FP on his motorcycle. They got there as the doctor was reaching Alice’s room. FP sat in a chair next to her bed, holding Alice’s hand with tears in his eyes. Betty appreciated the way FP looked at her mother longingly, despite all the equipment she was hooked up to.

Betty stood at the other side of the bed and listened to the doctors and nurses as they discussed her mother’s conditio. She had made no progress in the last 24 hours and was not breathing on her own despite a lack of sedation. Betty kept her eyes towards the hospital staff but could hear FP weeping quietly next to her mother. She tried to provide him what little privacy he had by looking away.

Betty knew what the next steps would be and was not surprised when the next doctor who walked in declared he was a neurologist and wanted to run some tests. _Brain death. They’re testing for brain death. Just come out and say it,_ she thought to herself.

FP needed a break and Betty suggested he get some coffee. She was happy to have some alone time with her mother. She sat by her and held her hand, stoking her mother’s knuckles with her thumbs. Betty told her about work and being a freelance journalist. Betty told her she would make sure Jelly Bean got her college applications sent off on time and would help her apply for scholarships. She told her she would make sure FP was okay. She told her she loved her. And she told her, that if she was ready, it was okay to let go.

Betty felt FP’s warm arm around her shoulder as he pulled her to his chest and they both cried. Betty continued to sob into his shoulder, soaking his shirt with her salty tears.

“She was so proud of you, you know that?” He told her, brushing his fingers through her hair. “She loved you. She would be happy to know you came back here, but she wouldn’t want you to put your life on hold.”

“I needed to come. I needed to see her. I needed to hear it for myself,” Betty told him through her sobs into his chest. “Things were finally good between us. And now its over. Its not fair.”

She continued to cry into FP’s chest. He silently cried into her hair. He had always been so loving and protective of both her and her mother. FP hadn’t been a great father to Jughead or Jellybean when they were growing up, but he had turned his life around and threw himself into being the best father he could, not only to his own children but also to Betty. He wasn’t the scary Serpent lurking in the shadows anymore when he was with her mother, he was the light hearted family man she knew he had always strived to be. Betty knew they had a weird family dynamic, but it was _her_ weird family and she cried over the fact that it would never be the same again.

For a while, they sat in silence, staring at Alice and listening to the steady beeps coming from the monitors.

“So now what? What do we do?” He asked.

“They test for brain death. And we need to decide what my mother would have wanted,” she told him. At that moment, a nurse walked in and explained she would be hooking Alice up to a monitor for testing. Betty needed some air and excused herself from the room.

Betty walked down the long hallway and out the front door of the small hospital. She took in a few deep breaths to try to slow down her breathing. She thought she may have had a few days to deal with all of this, but it looked like things were worse than expected and she may only have a matter of hours with her mother. Anxiety began creeping up from Betty’s core and before she had realized she had curled her hands into fists, the blood was already seeping from her palms where her nails had bit into her skin. She hadn’t done that since her last semester of college. She had been so good about keeping her emotions at bay, but this was proving to be too much. She flexed her hands and wiped the fresh blood on her dark jeans.

Betty decided to walk around the block before going back in. She needed to be strong for her mother and for FP and she would need a clear head to do that. She was just past the parking lot when she heard the familiar rumble of a motorcycle behind her.


	5. Chapter 5

Betty stopped in her tracks. She looked around to see if there was anywhere she could hide, but realized she had already been seen and ducking down behind a parked car would be fairly useless. She didn’t have the emotional capacity to handle this right now. She swallowed hard and prepared herself for the reunion she had sought to avoid.

Jughead stopped his bike a few feet in front of her. He killed the engine, swung his long leg over the bike, removed his helmet and pulled down the black and white bandana covering his face. His green eyes were dark and his angled features of his face look hardened over the past few years. Dark circles hung under his bloodshot eyes and a thick black curl had flopped forward and rested on his forehead. His mouth was held in a tight line and he breathed heavily through his flared nostrils. He looked pissed.

Betty panicked and started to b-line it back towards the main entrance of the hospital.

“Betts! Wait!” He yelled after her. He jogged up behind her and grabbed her arm to spin her around.

“Get off!” She yelled. “Don’t _you_ touch me.”

“Betty,” he growled in his deep voice while leaning in towards her. “We need to talk.”

“No, we don’t.”

“When the hell were you going to tell me you were back?! You owe me that much.”

“I don’t owe you anything. And I’m here for my mom. I don’t have time for this.”

“I had to find out from someone who saw you at Pop’s that you were back,” he said, monotone. “You left me, Sweetheart. Remember? And you think you can just waltz back into town like nothing happened?”

“Like I said, I’m here for my mother and for FP.”

“We need to talk,” he ordered.

“Not right now we don’t,” she told him, pulling free of his grip on her arm. “You can’t bark orders at me anymore. I’m not one of your henchmen. I’m going back inside to spend what time my mother has left _with_ _her_.”

The anger drained from his face only to be replaced with confusion and then sadness. His eyes lightened a little and his scowl loosened.

“Shit. I didn’t know it was so bad, Betts,” he said, his voice more gentle.

“Well it’s not going to get better. Your dad is really struggling and I need to figure out what the next steps are and what my mother would have wanted,” she told him. She was aware of the space between them closing in and took a step back.

“Can I at least see her?” He asked, suddenly softer. “She was more of a mother to me than Gladys ever was.”

“Yes,” she eyed his suspiciously.“But keep it civil. She may not have much time left and I don’t want to waste it in a fight that can wait for some other time.”

He nodded in agreement and stretched out a hand for her to shake. She could feel the heat from his skin searing into hers. He caught the quickest glance at her bloody palms and winced inwardly. He knew it must be bad if Betty had lost control like that again. He wanted to reach out and touch her but knew they were far from that type of familiarity.

The anger from his face had washed away and was replaced with sadness. She was still so mad at him for what had happened between them years ago, but in that moment she had to fight the urge to reach out and comfort him. Betty could feel the electricity between them as they held each others gaze for a moment too long. She shook it off and began walking with him back into the hospital.

Dealing with Jughead was the last thing Betty wanted to do today. But he was right. Alice was a much better maternal figure to him than his mother Gladys ever was, even with her controlling tendencies. Alice didn’t dislike Jughead, but she had never been happy with anything or anyone that could distract Betty from being the perfect daughter. Over the years, Alice had grown fond of Jughead, knowing Betty was always protected when he was around. Keeping Betty safe and out of trouble was almost a full time job when she was younger as she always felt the need to investigate everything and found herself in the middle of some very dangerous situations thanks to their association with the Southside Serpents.

Betty and Jughead walked into the hospital and down the long hallway to Alice’s room. She had what looked like a hundred wires hooked up to her head that ran to a computer in the corner of the room. FP looked up as they entered the room, shock on his face. He wasn’t sure he would ever see Betty and Jughead in the same room again, let alone looking civil. FP got up from his chair and wrapped his arms around Jughead, letting his face fall into his son’s shoulder and allowing whatever emotion was left in his body to spill out.

Betty excused herself from the room and walked out to the waiting room. She wanted to give them some alone time and she had a text from Veronica.

**_Veronica:_ ** _How are things going?_

**_Betty:_ ** _Not well. They are starting the process to test for brain death._

**_Veronica:_ ** _Oh no! I’m so sorry, B! How are you holding up?_

**_Betty:_ ** _Okay I think. FP is trying to keep it together but we both broke down earlier._

**_Veronica:_ ** _I’m glad he has you there. Just know you don’t have to be strong for him. You are allowed to grieve._

**_Betty:_ ** _I know. I was doing fine until Jug showed up._

**_Veronica:_ ** _He what?!?_

**_Betty:_ ** _I went out to get some fresh air and he rode up and demanded we talk. I told him no. He didn’t know my mother was so bad off. He is in there with her and FP right now._

**_Veronica:_ ** _I can’t believe he would just show up at the hospital. Did he not know what happened? This isn’t the time or place to try to sort out whatever happened between you two._

**_Betty:_ ** _I know. I’m going to have to eventually talk to him though. The hurt is still there._

**_Veronica:_ ** _Don’t rush it. Do what you need to do. Let me know if you need anything._

**_Betty:_ ** _Thanks, V._

Betty sat with her head in her hands for a few minutes until she felt the warm, leather-clad body sit down next to her. She turned to look at Jughead who sat upright in his chair and continued to look straight ahead, not saying anything. His face was emotionless.

“Jug,” Betty’s voice had become very small.

“I didn’t know, Betts,” he said in a quiet voice.

“I know,” she told him.

“What do we do?” He asked.

“We wait.”

———————————————————————————————————————

Jughead had come looking for the argument he had waited the last two years to have with the one person who had destroyed him and his entire world. When he saw her that afternoon on the sidewalk, all of his old feelings came flooding back. She was beautiful and strong and dealing with something he had never wanted to think about dealing with himself.

Even with everything going on at the club, Jughead couldn’t think of any place else he needed to be than there at the hospital with his father, Alice, and Betty. He sat down in the waiting room next to Betty, hoping to feel her warm, calming presence as he fought the emotions he was battling. His phone buzzed in his pocket.

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _Ghoulies ransacked the corner store by the Wyrm._

**_Jughead:_ ** _I’m in the middle of something. I’ll be back later. Handle it._

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _On it._

**_Jughead:_ ** _Call a meeting for tonight._


	6. Chapter 6

Betty sat in the uncomfortable chair at her mother’s bedside, dozing in and out in the sun soaked room. FP and Jughead had gotten texts at the same time and needed to go to the Whyte Wyrm to take care of some serpent business. She was happy to have some time alone with her mother. She had tried to call her sister, Polly, but was unable to find her. She had checked out of rehab last week and the phone number she left with the facility in Arizona was not longer active.

The nurse had left a packet of information for Betty and FP to go through. Betty thumbed through the pages, but she knew what this was. She had given similar information to families before: _How to prepare for the death of a loved one._ Betty knew that her mother would want to be buried. She loved projecting the idea of being the perfect house wife out to the world, so it would only be fitting to organize a grand ceremony for her.

Betty was normally the party planner, but this was not a task she was up to taking on and not one that FP would be able to deal with and be able to stay sober. She sent Veronica a text and asked her to make the arrangements. She said she would and asked Archie’s mother, Mary Andrews, to help. Mary and Alice had been friends since they were kids and lived next door to each other for the past 25 years.

Visiting hours were almost over for the night. She kissed her mother on the forehead and made her way to the parking lot. Getting into her mother’s SUV, Betty turned the key and began to sob uncontrollably, unable to catch her breath. She had felt numb since she got the call from FP yesterday, but all of her emotions finally spilled out over the steering wheel at that moment.

The sun had gone down by the time Betty pulled into the driveway. She looked at the packet of information she had been handed at the hospital laying on the passenger seat. She tried to wipe her eyes to hide the fact that she had being crying before she went in. She didn’t want to deal with this right now, but she took the packet inside anyways. Betty could hear voices in the kitchen as she entered the house.

Sitting at the counter were FP, Jelly Bean, Mary Andrews, and Archie Andrews. Veronica was standing on the other side of the counter and pulling a casserole out of the oven. Mary got up and gave Betty a huge hug before pulling her back to come sit down with them. Archie got up to give her a hug as well.

“You look good, Betty,” he said.

“Thanks, Arch.”

“Like, you look tough Betty.”

“I started running,” Betty told him. “But if you hurt Veronica you can be sure I’ll kick your ass,” she joked and held up a fist.

“You know, Archie’s gym has come along ways,” Veronica boasted. “He has really made a name for himself in the community. They have the gym and classes. The neighborhood kids know they can go there. It has taken a lot of the crime off the streets.”

“That’s great Archie,” Betty told him with a smile. She made a mental note to stop into his gym. It would be a good way to burn off some more of her emotional energy.

“You know you’re welcome to come by if you want,” he told her.

Betty did look different from when she left. She had filled out some and had taken to working out frequently. She was no longer the skinny, weak little girl that left Riverdale. She was curvier and stronger. She had muscle on her small frame and curves that filled out her clothes the way she hadn’t been able to before. She ran a few times a week, but she also took up classes at the gym near her apartment. Everything from boxing to cycling to dance to yoga. Working out had become her way of coping with stress and anxiety and sometimes the loneliness of living so far away.

The group sat around the counter and enjoyed a meal together. It was almost as if they weren’t dealing with Alice’s impending death. Mary, Archie, and Veronica left when Jelly Bean went upstairs to do her homework. Betty helped FP clean up from dinner.

“The nurse brought this in after you left,” Betty said, handing the packet over to FP.

“I thought we would have had more time,” he said shaking his head and running his hands through his hair.“I thought Alice and I would have had more time. I feel like I just got her back.”

“I know. The timing sucks. I miss her already,” she told him. “Has JB been in to see her?”

“I wanted to take her tomorrow.”

“That would be a good idea. The majority of the testing is done.”

“I feel like this is all happening so soon. Everything is happening so fast, Betty. I’m not ready to lose her.”

Betty took a deep breath. She didn’t want to say it, but the nurses and doctors had been skirting his questions all day. She’s been in their shoes and knows that this is hard information to give, but it needed to be done. She was ready to pull off the bandaid.

“She’s gone FP. Without the medicine and the machines, she would leave us. When we go in tomorrow, they are going to tell us we have to make some decisions. And its going to suck.”

Her heart ached as she watched him break down. He held himself up against the counter with one hand, the other covering his face as he sobbed. She felt her own tears flowing down her face. She crossed the kitchen and they held each other while they wept until neither of them had any more tears to cry. Betty wiped her face and excused herself to her room. She needed some time alone to process. She closed her door and heard FP turn on the TV downstairs.

She changed into her pajamas and climbed into bed hoping to get some sleep. She was emotionally drained and knew she would need her energy tomorrow. She buried her face in her pillow and was immediately hit with Jughead’s scent of sandalwood, citrus, and cigarettes. That nervous knot of anxiety was back in her stomach again.

They hadn’t had the talk he was wanting yet, but she knew it was coming. She was ready to throttle him today on the sidewalk. That tough guy persona he puts on for the rest of the world just really pissed her off today. And how dare he make demands of her. She wasn’t a serpent anymore. She left.

But her heart also broke seeing him so upset. He wasn’t the tough gang leader in that moment, he was Jughead Jones, her childhood friend. He was scared and sad. It would have been very easy to slip back into old habits and reach out to touch him, but that wouldn’t lead anywhere but more heartache. She wasn’t planning on staying in Riverdale.

She still had a job and an apartment in Boston. For all she knew, he is now King of the Southside Serpents and probably has bimbos lining up down the street wanting to be Queen. She remembered too easily the company that kept up at the Whyte Wyrm and she wasn’t going to let her guard down with him this time.


	7. Chapter 7

The next few days were a blur. Betty and FP spent all of their time at the hospital. Alice had been declared brain dead. At Betty’s request, she remained on life support until her friends and family that wanted to could come and say goodbye. But by Wednesday, it was time to say goodbye to Alice. Gathered around her bed, Betty, FP, Jelly Bean, Jughead, Archie, Veronica, and Mary stood by her side as she was taken off life support and passed quietly in her hospital bed.

Mary and Veronica had made the necessary arrangements for her funeral that weekend. It was a grand affair, which is exactly as Alice would have wanted. There were white flowers lining the pews in the church, the choir sang, and Alice was surrounded by friends as she was laid to rest.

Betty sat in the front pew, with Jelly Bean to her left, followed by FP, and finally Jughead. FP got up to speak, but couldn’t make it more than a few lines before he sat down. Betty stood and walked to the front, telling stories of her mother’s overbearing ways as a child, fun times they had together, and how she shaped her as a woman and was thankful that she had gotten to call her “Mom.”. There was not a dry eye in the house.

The wake was hosted at the Cooper-Jones home that evening. It felt as if half of the town had come to pay their respects. Veronica and Mary manned the kitchen and bar they had set up in the dining room. Betty and FP thanked their guests for coming and supporting them. Jelly Bean was upset and turned to her own friends in her grief. They had left the wake to go to Pop’s and drown their sorrows in milkshakes.

Jughead and Archie sat in a corner of the living room, nursing two bottles of beer and catching up. Jughead looked up as Betty scanned the room. His jaw was tense and his green eyes locked with hers. She felt her breath quicken and her face flush. She turned on heel and left through the front door, hoping he didn’t notice the effect he still had on her. She was emotionally drained, exhausted, and just didn’t want to deal with anything right now. Especially not the knot that formed in her stomach every time she looked at him.

Betty wasn’t sure where she was headed, but she needed out of the house and away from the tears and sad faces. She didn’t make it very far from her house as she stopped next door at the Andrews’s house and sat on Mary’s front porch. This was the porch she, Archie, and Jughead would eat lunch on every day in the summer growing up. This was the house where they took their prom photos. This was the house she and her friends would play in after school, have campouts in the back yard at, and where the tree house Archie’s dad had built them was. She grew up here and missed the days when everything was so much easier; when it was just her and her two best friends.

She sat there in the golden sunlight with her head back on one of the posts flanking the stairs and closing her eyes. She could hear the wake next door from across the yard. It would get louder as the door would open and people would come and go. Betty appreciated everything everyone had done for them, but she was craving a reprieve from the sadness. She hadn’t had a real break since FP had called her on Sunday morning. Being able to be alone, even if only for a few minutes, was one of the most relaxing parts of her week.

Betty opened her eyes when she heard a crunch on the grass beside her. _Seriously, not now, Jug._

“Can I sit?” Jughead asked as he sit down and pulled a cigarette out of his leather jacket pocket. He took a long drag and sat back against the opposite post.

“Would it matter if I said no?” Betty asked, lifting a questioning eyebrow in his direction.

He smirked and looked at her through his dark curls that had fallen over his eyes. “Probably not.” He took another long drag, consciously blowing the smoke away from Betty. She noted that he was still wearing his gray crown beanie. That thing had to be fifteen years old. He almost never left home without it. It had been his security blanket since they were about ten.

“You did a really good job today. This whole week. I don’t know what my dad would have done without you,” he told her. “Alice would have been really proud of you.”

“Thanks Jug,” she said. She mustered a small smile even though her voice was breaking.

They looked up when they saw another car full of people pull up to the wake. Betty huffed and leaned back against the post, closing her eyes. Jughead took the moment to take her in. She looked good. _Better than good,_ he thought to himself. _Why the hell did she have to come back here?_

Despite all of their history, he wanted to reach out and hold her. He was her protector for so long, it was hard to break old habits, but he shoved his free hand in his pocket to keep him from acting on his impulses. He could tell she was tired and drained, but he had an idea.

“Lets go,” he told her as he stood up and snubbed out his cigarette on Mary’s porch. He held a hand out for her to get up.

“What? Where?” She asked, reaching for his hand to help her up. Her skin burned where his skin has touched hers.

“Does it matter? You look like you need a break from all this. So let’s go,” he told her.

She shrugged. He was right. FP was surrounded by people who loved him in there. She could take a break. Betty followed his lead towards the side yard where he had parked his motorcycle. He kicked a leg over the bike and handed her his helmet. It was the same matte black helmet he had always had, with a three prong crown scratched into the front of it. She took the helmet from him but did not put it on.

“Betts, you have to wear a helmet. Put it on. Unless you forgot how to ride a bike,” he teased her.

“I haven’t forgotten. I can still ride. But this isn’t riding and you’re just asking me to sit on the back and look pretty,” she told him. She had learned to ride when they were younger and loved the thrill of racing along the back country highways with him and their Serpent friends.

“Well then get on and do what you do best,” he smirked again, the corner of his mouth turning up slightly. That look he gave her always turned her to mush. _Don’t fall for this again, Betty, she told herself._

She swung her leg over and sat behind him. She buckled her helmet as he pulled a green and white bandana up over the lower half of his face. She slipped her arms under his leather jacket and around his waist. He was thankful the bandana would hide the fact that feeling her holding on to him made him smile from ear to ear.

He kicked the bike to life and they rode off down the quiet road through town. Betty watched as the town blurred around them and all the noise from this week was drowned out by the purr of the engine. It had been years since she had been on a bike, and she had forgotten just how cold she would be without a jacket.

When she was younger, she wore a similar black leather jacket with the two headed snake emblem embroidered on the back like the other Southside Serpents. But today she was unprepared and she felt goosebumps popping up on her arms and legs as the wind whipped around her.Her black jeans and thin black sweater weren’t providing much of a wind break and she found herself trying to hide behind Jughead’s body as much as she could, using him for warmth. _Whatever you have to tell yourself, Betty Cooper._

Jughead drove them out of town along the tree lined roads that wove their way around Riverdale. When they came to a pull out near Sweetwater River, Jughead slowed the bike, engaged the kick stand while standing up and offered a hand to Betty. She felt unsteady from the vibrations of the bike but quickly regained her balance.

“What are we doing out here?” She asked, looking around at their new surroundings. _If he was going to murder me and ditch my body, this would probably be as good of a place as any,_ she thought to herself.

“I figured you needed some time away from all the people. It’s been a crazy week, Betts, and you’ve been taking care of everyone else. So I thought we would just come out here, and sit, and talk,” he shot her a look and then winked, “or not talk. I know you aren’t a fan of me anymore. I just wanted to try to give you a few minutes away from the madness.”

“I appreciate that,” she told him.

He stepped over to an outcropping of large rocks that overlooked the river and sat down. He gazed out at the setting sun reflecting on the crystal clear blue water flowing below. Betty sighed, realizing he was just trying to be nice and sat down next to him. The rocks had been warmed by the sun and Betty tried to absorb their heat as she sat down. Jughead sensed what she was doing and without saying anything, slipped his leather jacket off and over her shoulders.

“Thanks, Jug. I wasn’t really prepared to jump on the back of a bike today,” she joked.

“Not a problem, Betts,” he assured her. She hadn’t been called Betts in years. It had always been his nickname for her. She could feel her face flush when he called her by that name and she hoped he wouldn’t see.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, listening to the moving water below them. “You’re wrong, you know?” She told him. “I never said I wasn’t a fan of you anymore.”

“I think leaving for five years is a weird way of telling me that.”

_Here we go, she thought to herself. We might as well have it out now and get everything that is horrible in my life over with in one day._

“I left for school, Jug. We were both suppose to leave for school. I can’t help that you decided to stay,” she told him.

“You could have stayed too,” he pleaded with her. “But you left and then you stopped visiting. You had this whole other life out there and I wasn’t remotely a part of it.”

Betty could feel him tense next to her. “Jug, I stopped visiting when I wasn’t wanted here anymore. I was tired of coming back here and not seeing anyone. I was exhausted from school and work and I was tired of making an effort that no one else was willing to make. FP and Alice were busy, JB was with her friends, Archie and Veronica were always gone, and you were too busy for me. Serpents come first, remember?”

“That’s not true,” he said, his eyes down.

“You know that it is, Jug,” she told him gently. She didn’t want this to become a heated argument that ended in neither of them listening and really hearing the other like every other time they had tried to have this conversation. “You came to visit me, what, twice in the first year I was there? Because you had to be here for Serpent business. I get it, they call, you go. That’s how it works. But the last time I came home to see you, I found you at the Wyrm surrounded by the guys and Serpent Sluts doing shots of tequila. You didn’t even seem to care that I saw you. That’s when I realized we were going in different directions.”

“I told you then and I’ll tell you now, that was not what it looked like. You know I would never cheat on you. You know you were my whole world. ”

“It didn’t seem like it that night. And I had expected we would grow apart since we were so far apart. I was on my own for the first time and I had friends you had never met, through no fault but your own. You were getting deeper into the Serpents,” she told him. “I was at school three hours away. I was working part time. I doubled majored while I was in nursing school. Do you realize how crazy and stupid that was? I was exhausted all the time. All I wanted was to come home and be with you that weekend and what I found hurt me. I started to think about all the times I couldn’t get ahold of you, or when you would say you were coming to visit and you didn’t. I figured you had found someone else to focus on and I was just the placeholder you needed until you were ready to move on. You didn’t need me anymore and I was dragging you down. I wasn’t cool enough or tough enough to stay with the Serpents so you weren’t going to keep me around. I couldn’t do it anymore, Jug. We were suppose to be a team and I felt like I was fighting for something you didn’t want anymore. ”

He turned to look at her. He could see the tears in her eyes. Every emotion he had felt the night she was talking about came back to him. He was mad and his imagination had gotten the better of him. He had heard from Veronica how well Betty was doing and how she was already lining up jobs for after graduation. He had felt worthless and unnecessary. He hadn’t felt worthy of her love. Every fear he had ever had of her leaving him had come to the surface that night because he wasn’t sure he could be him without her. For what ever reason, he had decided to drown his sorrows in tequila and build up a wall to try to protect himself from the heartbreak he wasn’t prepared to deal with. 

“When you didn’t come back, I was embarrassed and ashamed,” he told her in a much quieter voice. “I was suppose to be the King but I was jealous that you got out of town. I was jealous of you, Betts. You had it all together. You didn’t need me anymore. I became obsolete. I was always afraid I wasn’t enough for you and it definitely seemed that way with the picture your mother and Veronica painted anytime they talked about you.”

“I didn’t have it together, Jug. I was just trying to get by and get through my classes so I could come back to you. I broke down everyday and lied to Veronica when she would ask how I was because I didn’t want anyone to know how much I was struggling. Juggie, I needed you. But when you didn’t seem to care and stopped calling and texting me, I realized I had to focus on myself. I had to get through it alone. And it was tough.”

“I didn’t mean to push you away. I hate that I’ve done that so many times. I loved you. I loved you more than anything but I got so wrapped up in the Serpents that I lost the most important thing in my life,” he told her.

“I know, Jug,” she told him. She rested her head on his shoulder, still looking out at the water. The sun dipping below the trees.

He wrapped an arm around her waist. “I fucked up, Betts.”


	8. Chapter 8

The ride back to their childhood home was bittersweet. Jughead was happy knowing they were able to talk about what happened, but he was mad at himself for taking this long to see how much of a selfish asshole he had been. He was the Serpent King and he had responsibilities, but he hadn’t realized when he had begun making the Serpents a higher priority than Betty. She had been his whole world since he could remember and had thrown it away because of his insecurities.

He had loved her since Kindergarten but had always assumed she would end up with Archie, who was the golden boy of Riverdale. He was an athlete and a musician. Girls at school swooned when he smiled at them. And Betty was perfect. He knew she hated being called that, but to him she was the definition of perfection. She was a beautiful, blonde cheerleader who ran the school newspaper and kept a 4.0 GPA.

She was sweet and caring and never judged anyone. When he got in a fight on the playground in second grade, she cleaned his wounds. When they all got chicken pox in junior high, she would spend hours on the phone with Jughead reading Harry Potter together. When one of the football jocks tried to force himself on her at a party freshman year, Jughead stepped in by throwing a punch and subsequently took one to the face, in order to defend her honor. When he took a chance sophomore year of high school and kissed her, he had no idea of the love he would find with her. She stood by him, encouraged him, supported him, and loved him whole heartedly. He was an idiot for ever letting her go.

They hadn’t solved the big glaring issues of their past during that conversation, but they both felt a little more at peace and comfortable in each other’s presence.Even if she was only holding onto him because they were on his bike, he would drive her anywhere she wanted to go so that he could feel her close to him again. His heart sank a little as they pulled up to the house.

She swung herself off the back of the bike and slipped his jacket off. She handed the helmet and the jacket back to him.

“Are you coming back in?” She asked, a little smile forming at the side of her mouth. Her big blue eyes the same color as the Sweetwater River.

All of the visitor vehicles seemed to be gone. Betty still didn’t feel like dealing with the aftermath of this week. She knew Mary and Veronica had probably already cleaned up from the wake, but walking into the house made her chest feel heavy and instantly tired again.

“I should probably check on my dad,” he told her.

Before walking inside, she stopped and looked Jughead in the eyes. She reached for his hand. “Thank you for the rescue tonight. I really needed that.” She squeezed his hand before letting it go and walking into the house.

Jughead could feel his heart beat faster. He had missed her little touches. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been touched in a way that was more than a fist-bump from his friends or a hug from his father. When he lived here with Betty, they were constantly touching. It wasn’t like they were making out and groping each other in public, but they moved in sync with each other and it wasn’t uncommon for arms to touch, hands to be held, or his arm to be draped over her shoulder. When they were alone was a whole other story. _Thank you, teenage hormones._ Jughead thought about it and if there were really five love languages, touch had always been both of theirs.

He started to wonder about her life without him. Did she have someone she cuddled up to at night? Was she brushing her fingers through someone else’s hair? When she went to bed at night, who’s name did she scream? He pushed the thoughts out of his mind. He didn’t want to imagine her with someone else. It was too painful and he could feel the pangs of jealousy creeping back up on him.

Jughead followed Betty inside. FP sat at the kitchen counter on one of the stools, reading through the mountain of cards they received. He looked up when Jughead and Betty walked through the front door.

“Hey! I wondered where you two had run off to,” he said. He wiggled his eyebrows to suggest more, making Betty blush and Jughead laugh and run his hand through his unruly dark hair.

“Definitely not, FP,” Betty said. Jughead winced a little but hoped neither of them had noticed. “I just needed some air and Jug came to my rescue.”

“That sounds about right. You’ve always had a hero complex, boy,” FP joked while pulling Jughead into a tight hug.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. How you holding up?” Jughead asked his father.

“I’m okay. I think that there is always going to be some hurt that comes and goes, but right now, I think Alice would have been really happy with how everything went today. She would have loved to see all the fuss everyone made over her. She really was something else,” FP said with tear returning to his eyes.

Jughead gave his father another long hug. But then excused himself to a plate of strawberries that was sitting on the counter.

“Hungry?” FP asked his son.

“Always.”

“Well make a plate and hang out,” FP told him, but Jughead had already grabbed a plate out of the cabinet and was rummaging through all the leftover food in the refrigerator. Betty laughed, having forgotten just how insatiable his appetite was.

FP and Jughead sat in the living room, laughing at something they were watching on TV. Jelly Bean got home and ran up to her room after her father and brother started asking her about the boy that had just walked her up to the front door. Betty excused herself to go take a shower and get ready for bed. She had told Archie she would come by the gym in the morning and check it out and she was already dreading her alarm that was set to go off in the morning. She told the Jones men goodnight and retreated up the stairs.

Betty, dressed in a tank top and shorts with her hair wrapped in a towel, was brushing her teeth when she heard a knock on her bedroom door. She opened it to see Jughead waiting awkwardly in the hallway.

“Hey, I’m gonna stay with Dad for a while longer. He is really wanting to reminisce on the good old days. But I was gonna grab some pajamas and sleep on the couch. Do you mind?” He asked and pointed at the dresser.

“Oh! No, go ahead,” she told him. “You’ve got a ton of stuff in there. Do you have anything at your place? Its like you never moved out,” she joked.

“That’s because I didn’t,” he told her. Her smile left her face.

“Where are you staying?” She asked. “Is it because I’m here?”

“I’m staying at the clubhouse apartment. Dad suggested I stay over there with the stuff that has been going on with the Serpents. But really, after I heard you were in town, I figured out what his motive was. I think he wanted to make it less weird on both of us. ”

“I told FP I could get a hotel or stay with Archie and Veronica. You didn’t have to go.”

“I know, but with everything that was going on, I thought it would only be right that you got to sleep in your own bed in your own house. Its not a big deal.”

“Thank you, Jug. You really didn’t have to do that.”

Jughead took his pajama pants and turned to leave. “I know.”


	9. Chapter 9

Betty tossed and turned that night. She replayed the day in her head and the conversations she had with her distant relatives and her mother’s friends. Her mind drifted to the motorcycle ride and the things she and Jughead had talked about. She thought about how normal everything was when she went to bed; FP and Jug hanging out and watching TV, snacks in the kitchen, Jelly Bean blushing when they asked her about the boy.

Her mind wandered back to Jughead. He hadn’t moved out. He was still living in the room they shared. He had been nice enough to stay at the apartment above the clubhouse while she was in town. She tried to imagine his 6 foot 2 frame sleeping in this pink bed in this very pink, princess room that had never been redecorated from when she was five years old. The king of the Southside Serpents chose to sleep on a bed with ruffles on the Northside of town instead of on the Southside with the rest of his loyal followers. _Hell, why hadn’t he even redecorated even a little?_

The gang brought in enough money that he could have replaced the furniture or at the least the bedding. Jughead probably had enough to have even gotten his own apartment by now. Betty chuckled to herself though, imagining him leading the other serpents into a brawl only to come home to surround himself with pink throw pillows. A smile spread across her face and with that thought, she finally drifted to sleep.

Betty woke up as the sun began to rise. She shot Archie a text to let him know she was headed to his gym. She put on a dark blue tank top and black yoga pants, and pulled her hair up into her signature Betty Cooper ponytail. She hated wearing her hair this way as a kid, but it was one of the few hairstyles her mother had approved of, so she wore it up often.

After brushing her teeth, she went downstairs to get a bottle of water and head out the door. Standing in the kitchen filling her water bottle, she noticed the feet sticking off the end of the sofa and the soft snores coming from the living room. Jughead was stretched out the entire length of the sofa and had spent the night downstairs. He was only wearing his plaid pajama pants and his defined muscles moved under his tight skin with each breath. He looked so peaceful and young laying there on the sofa. The only differences from when she saw him two years ago were his hardened muscles and a sleeve of tattoos adorning his right arm that was currently draped over his face.

Betty realized she had been staring at the sleeping Jughead for a little too long when the water started spilling out of the top of her water bottle. She grabbed the keys to her mother’s SUV and slipped out the door without waking Jughead up.

Archie’s gym was on the line between Northside and Southside in an industrial area near the old Sunnyside Trailer Park. She had so many memories in FP’s little trailer there, most of them involving Jughead in some form of undress. The gym didn’t look like much from the outside, but inside, bright lights hung overhead, music played on a speaker somewhere, and the smell of sweat and disinfectant filled her nose. This was definitely going to be a place she could burn off some emotions.

Archie greeted her with a big smile and a wave from the doorway of what was serving as his office. She walked over to him.

“So what do you think?” He asked, still smiling ear to ear. Archie had started the gym as a way to preserve his father’s memory while helping out the community and giving the teens in the area a place to hang out and stay out of trouble.

“This is great Arch. Want to give me a tour?” She asked her childhood friend.

For the next ten minutes, Archie walked Betty around the gym showing her the equipment, talking about classes, and introducing her to his regulars. He had really built the place up over the last few years and Betty was proud of her friend. He had found something that made him incredibly happy. Aside from Veronica, of course.

“If you decide you want to do some personal training, I could probably pencil you in, Cooper,” he joked.

“I may take you up on it at some point,” she told him. “I think right now, I’m going to go jump on a treadmill until my brain is numb.”

“Let me know if you need anything,” he said as he gave her a playful punch to the shoulder.

Betty found an open treadmill in the corner of the gym. After she stretched for a minute, she pulled up a playlist on her phone, put her earbuds in, and started her run. She would have preferred to run outside, but with it being a rainy morning this was a good option. Over the next forty-five minutes, she put the treadmill through its paces, changing speed and incline frequently. When she was done, Betty decided to do a few rounds on the weight machines until her muscles were finally exhausted. She felt more at peace after a good workout. She thanked Archie and agreed to dinner with him and Veronica at their house tonight.

The drive home was uneventful as she made her way through the industrial area and through the clean cut downtown area on the Northside. Betty stopped at a drive-through coffee stand before heading back to the house. She had planned to go through some of her old things today and donate what she could as she didn’t want FP to be burdened with her old stuff.

Feeling ready to take on the day and feeling relatively stress free, Betty slipped her ear buds back in, turned up her favorite song, grabbed her coffee, and headed inside and upstairs. The hallway was still dark, meaning FP and Jellybean were still probably asleep. Betty opened the door to her room quickly, trying to not wake everyone up and silently shut the door behind her. When she turned around she was face to face with very wet and very naked Jughead.

He smirked and let out a small laugh as Betty tried to take a step back, juggle her coffee, and cover her eyes all at the same time. He had obviously just taken a shower as the room had filled with steam from the ensuite bathroom and he was standing with nothing more than a towel in his hand barely covering his manhood.

“Oh geez! Sorry! I didn’t realize you were in here!” She spit out loudly, forgetting her ear buds were still pumping music into her ears.

Jughead reached over and plucked one of the earbuds out of her ear, signaling to her how loud she had been speaking.

“Its not like you haven’t seen it before, Betts.”

She blushed at his comment and realized she may have been staring at his body a little too long.

“You want to hand me my clothes?” He asked and gestured to the pile of clothing on top of the dresser. She looked at him with the same blank expression. “You know you could take a pic. It would last longer.” He said through breathy laughs, the corner of his mouth curling up in that way that Betty loved.

“Yeah. Sorry,” she said, handing him his clothes from the dresser next to her, her hand still over her eyes.

“Thanks Betts,” he said and he strolled back into the bathroom, knowing fair well that his bare ass was giving her a show as he strode across the room. Betty could feel her face redden as she snuck a peak at him through her fingers. He was always tall, but now he was lean and muscular. He flipped his unruly black head of curls back as he walked, running his fingers through his hair. _I would kill to get my hands in his hair,_ she thought. His right arm was covered in a sleeve of tattoos in various shades of black and gray. Little Jughead Jones had grown up.

He walked back out of the bathroom wearing only black jeans that clung to his lean legs. His toothbrush hung out of his mouth.

“Did you need to get in there?” He asked, as if they hadn’t taken a break over the last two years.

“Uh, yeah. I was just going to shower really quick,” she told him as she grabbed some clothes out of the dresser. She walked over to the bathroom and shut the door. She turned on the water, slipped out of her gym clothes, and let the water spill over her.

She was rinsing out her hair when she felt the temperature change in the bathroom, alerting her to the door being opened. Betty froze, not moving as she listened to what was going on just beyond the shower curtain. Jughead stood at the sink, finishing with his toothbrush and rinsing his mouth out. Betty was suddenly very aware of how close he was and how very naked she was.

She hadn’t noticed how tense her body had gotten at his presence until she heard the door shut again. She peaked out from behind the curtain to make sure she was alone before she sank back into the warm water. _Get it together, Betts._

She finished her shower, dressed in the bathroom in jeans and a green tank top, and put on her normal mascara and lipgloss combo. She was toweling her hair dry as she walked back into her room. Jughead was laid out on the bed, looking through his phone, and drinking her coffee.

“Hope you don’t mind, Sweetheart,” he chuckled and winked at her as he waved the paper coffee cup in the air. “Most women just tip me in dollar bills when they get a show, but this will do.”

Betty rolled her eyes and laughed. “Well for what they charged me for that coffee, I would have expected a better show,” she said as she raised one eyebrow.

“They definitely overcharged you,” he laughed. “What are you doing today?”

“My plan was to go through some of my old stuff and get rid of what I can. I didn’t want FP to be stuck with more than he wanted to deal with around here. And Archie and Veronica invited me over for dinner tonight at their place.”

“You don’t have to get rid of your stuff, Betts. My dad doesn’t care if its here.”

“I really don’t need a lot of it. I haven’t had it in five years and I haven’t missed it. Its just taking up space.”

“Well don’t go throwing stuff out on our account.”

“I won’t.”

“What time is your dinner?” He asked.

“Six.”

“Hmmm,” he said. “It seems we may be dealing with an old fashioned parent trap situation.”

“How so?”

“Veronica invited me too.”


	10. Chapter 10

“Are you just going to sit there all day? Don’t you have some serpent business to attend to or something?” Betty asked as she sat on the floor of her old room going through boxes out of the closet.

“Nope. Not that I recall,” Jughead said looking up from his phone momentarily before looking back down at it. Things were quiet on the Serpent front for the time being, but he knew Sweet Pea would probably give him a rash of shit for suddenly not being around as much the moment Betty had come back to town. He was still laid out on her bed, listening to music on his phone and reading a book for his online class. “Find anything good yet?”

“Just some old artwork and school projects from when we were kids. I’m pulling a few things out but most of this was garbage.”

“Well most first graders weren’t great artists, Betty.”

She kept digging through the box, pulling out a few items she would set aside to keep and trashing the others. She was trying to not take too much time to decide if what she was looking at meant anything to her. It was easier to purge when paperwork didn’t hold emotional memories for her.

“Now if you really want to go through some of your old stuff, you should grab that box in the back of the closet. Its my favorite. It is pure Betty Cooper gold,” Jughead told her and threw a wink her her direction.

She threw out the last item from the art box and went for the one he was talking about. She drug it out of the closet and back to where she was sitting. She flipped open the top flaps and her jaw dropped.

“Jug, did you read my diaries?!?” She exclaimed.

He almost fell off the bed laughing. “Maybe a few,” he responded. That was a lie. He had read them all. Some of them multiple times. Whenever he would start to miss her, he would read through her diaries. He loved hearing her thoughts and reading about how much she had fallen for him.

“Oh my god I can’t believe you, Jug,” she repeated, feeling slightly violated.

“It is honestly some of your most honest writing,” he told her with sincerity.

“Well that is thoroughly embarrassing,” she said with her head in her hands. She closed the box back up, making a mental note to bring them back with her so the no one else could read them. She moved to the closet, looking through the clothes. She began pulling items out of the closet and laying them on the bed next to Jughead. He sat up as she started holding different pieces up to inspect and tossed them into two different piles.

“You gonna put on a fashion show for me?” He joked. “Because I remember quite a few of these outfits very well,” he said, picking up a pink and white floral dress. The both looked at the dress then and turned red. That was what she was wearing the first time they had sex. They had been caught up in a moment of hormone driven passion in FP’s trailer while he had been away in jail. She remembered Jughead struggling to get the zipper down and swearing at her mother for buying an outfit that was so hard to get off.

“You should toss that in the donate pile,” she told him.

“I think I’m gonna keep it.”

“I don’t think its going to fit either of us, but that’s your call. Its going to have to live in your half of the closet then,” she joked.

She continued to sort through the clothing, saving a few pieces and finding a trash bag full to donate to the thrift shop.

“Theres, like, nothing left in there anymore,” he said, a hint of sadness in his voice.

“Very little of that was going to fit, Juggie. I’m not a stick anymore.” He melted inside when he heard her call him by his old nickname.

“Oh trust me, I noticed,” he wiggled his eyebrows at her and she rolled her eyes. He had noticed how her clothes clung to her curves. He had to hold himself back every time she bent over in her low cut jeans to get something else out of the closet.

The last item she pulled out of the closet was a soft, black leather jacket with the two headed Southside Serpent logo embroidered on the back. She held it in her hands, running her fingers over the embroidery.

“You saved this?” She asked him.

“You earned it. Fair and square. Just because you took it off and left town didn’t mean you weren’t a Serpent anymore,” he reminded her.

“I’ve been gone for five years. And I have stayed out of trouble this whole time. Hell, I spend more time patching up gang members at work than I ever was one.”

“We like to think of it more as a social club,” he laughed. “You went through the gauntlet just like the rest of us. Granted, I don’t think the girls hit as hard as the guys do, so you lucked out that way. But you survived the gauntlet and you got the tattoo and you rode the bike. You’re one of us if you like it or not.”

“That seems like ages ago, Jug,” Betty told him.

“You still have the tattoo?”

Blushing, she replied, “Yeah.”

“Then you, Betty Cooper, are still a member and the tattoo still gets you cheap drinks at the Wyrm.”

“I thought I had free drinks at the Wyrm,” she told him.

“The tattoo gets you cheap drinks,” he told her. “Queen gets free drinks.”

“Cheap drinks it is then,” she told him, now secretly wondering if there was a Queen that had taken her place in the last two years.

She had hid the tattoo from her mother when she got it. Part of initiation was getting a tattoo of the serpent logo. It meant you were in for life. Jughead had gotten his on his bicep and was now surrounded by a menagerie of other ink. She knew FP had his on his chest over his heart. Betty had gotten hers on her left side, just below her ribcage where it was easy to hide. As much as Alice tried to deny ever being a part of the Serpents in her youth, she had had the same snake on her upper thigh.

Jelly Bean walked into the room to see what Betty was up to.

“Hey JB, I’m going through my closet. Do you want any of these clothes? There’s some formal dresses in here.”

“Yeah, I’ll try them on. Thanks!” She said as she gathered up all of the clothes Betty had tossed aside and went back to her room. She was growing up with a dad and a brother who tended to buy her jeans and baggy flannel shirts. Alice had started slipping in some more feminine pieces into her closet but never required Jelly Bean to meet the standards she had held Betty to. Jelly Bean was a little taller than Betty had been at her age but was incredibly thin and lean like her brother. Most of the things she took to try on would probably fit her. Betty felt good about being able to pass them down.

“So… dinner is in an hour,” Jughead said. “Do you want to ride together or take separate vehicles?”

“That is up to you. What’s the deal with this dinner? I feel like we are about to enter the Thunderdome.”

“I think Veronica and Archie are trying to get us to talk and maybe even get back together,” he told her.

“Well we did talk, but I haven’t told V that. What have you told Archie?”

“Not much. He didn’t even tell me you were in town. I can’t blame him though. I came at you like an complete asshole at the hospital,” he admitted, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck.

“Lets keep our conversation to ourselves then. I don’t know if I feel less hurt about the whole thing, but I definitely feel more at peace about trying to be friends with you,” she admitted.

“That sounds fair,” he told her. “I definitely feel more settled now that you’re back. Lets just eat dinner with them and drink their expensive booze and have a good time.”

“Deal. What are you going to wear? Is this going to be one of those famous Veronica dinners that she says is casual but she not so secretly wishes I would have worn a cocktail dress and heels?” She asked.

“I’m going to put on a button up shirt and suspenders on over this. Do you think you can ride on the bike in a cocktail dress and heels?” He smirked.

“You know I’ve worn less on a bike, Juggie,” she said back slyly.

“Be still my heart,” he said as he jokingly fanned himself. Betty enjoyed how easy it was joking with him. He blushed thinking about the time she had raced Sweet Pea while wearing nothing more than a string bikini and combat boots.

“Jeans, a sweater, and I guess this is as good of a reason as ever to put this jacket back on.”


	11. Chapter 11

Betty slipped her arms under Jughead’s jacket and around his waist as he revved the engine of his motorcycle. Now that she had her own leather jacket back in her possession, she didn’t really need to hold on so close to Jughead to stay warm, but it was a good enough reason for her to touch him without too many questions. He noticed how tightly she held him and leaned her head against his back. He felt like his skin was on fire wherever she touched him. He had missed being held by her.

They arrived at Archie and Veronica’s apartment just minutes before six. Veronica answered the door in a tight black dress, heels, and her signature pearl necklace.

“B! Come in! You haven’t been to our apartment have you?” She asked and whisked Betty into the apartment to give her a tour. Calling it an apartment was almost absurd as it was nearly 1600 square feet, had three bedrooms and two bathrooms and a balcony overlooking the Northside of Riverdale.

Jughead and Archie were on the balcony drinking a beer while Jughead had a smoke. Betty’s grand tour was finally over and Veronica was pouring her a glass of wine.

“So what do you think Betty?” Archie asked.

“The view is amazing up here. But this whole place is great. I think my entire apartment would fit on your balcony and you would still have room to throw a party around it,” she laughed.

“Oh it can’t be that small, B,” Veronica teased.

“I can literally reach into my fridge while sitting on my couch…which also folds into my bed,” she admitted. “But its the perfect size for me and I didn’t want roommates. And its really close to the hospital so I don’t have much of a commute.”

“Ugh that sounds horrible!” Veronica exclaimed. “You should let me give you the number for a real estate agent my family has used in Boston before.”

“I’m not sure I can afford much else there, V,” Betty said. “Rent is super expensive and honestly my apartment isn’t bad. The only thing I miss is having a tub but I’ll live.”

“You should still give her a call, you never know what gem might be hiding in the rough,” Veronica assured her. “Dinner is ready so if you would all like to follow me into the dining room, we can dig in.”

The group of friends followed Veronica into the dining room where they feasted on salad, pot roast, bread, and finally brownies and ice cream. The wine was flowing freely and Betty realized after her fifth glass that she probably needed to slow down. Her head was swimming and she was feeling overly giddy. She tried to hide her smile as she noticed Jughead watching her from across the room.

They decided to take their party to the living room where Archie and Veronica lounged on their sectional sofa. Betty sat on the end of the sectional with her knees up against her chest. Jughead sat on the floor facing the rest of the group, still sipping on his beer. He thought she looked very childlike right then, curled up on the couch, smiling and laughing with her friends. He found it hard to take his eyes off her.

Jughead talked to Archie about his gym and thanked him for offering the Serpents a discounted rate. A lot of the Serpents enjoyed going in there and having them blow off energy at the gym and not by punching each other in the face at the bar was a huge plus for him.

Veronica asked Jughead about school. He had been studying online for the past three years and was studying English Literature. He was hoping to finish this year but he didn’t have too many plans after that other than to keep writing in his free time. He admitted he had been having writers block for the last few months though and he was hoping at some point it would break and he could enjoy what he was writing again.

Veronica gushed about her maple rum business with Cheryl, their friend from high school and heir to the Blossom Maple Syrup company. They were expanding their business and had buyers in five states now. Cheryl was doing a great job being on the road and marketing their product.

Betty hadn’t said much, she was a little tipsy and just enjoying being around her friends and listening to their stories and achievements.

“What about you Betty?” Archie asked. “What's your job like? Do you love it?”

The truth was she did love it more than she had ever thought she would. She liked the adrenaline of never knowing what was going to come through the doors.

“It is not what I had ever thought I would be doing, but it is definitely a rush. Don’t get me wrong, there are times that it sucks, like when kids die or when drug addicts threaten you, but most of the time, you know you were able to help someone. Its a really good feeling.”

Jughead shifted in his seat a little. He didn’t like the idea of Betty being threatened at work or that she thought it was just part of the job. He realized he was gripping his beer bottle tightly and made an effort to relax his hand, hoping the gesture wasn’t noticeable to the rest of the group.

“Veronica said you were hitting the gym pretty hard,” Archie said. “I mean, it definitely looked like it today. Some of the older guys were surprised when you started hitting the weights,” he laughed. Jughead’s eyebrow quirked up at the thought of Betty impressing the gym rats.

“Ha, yeah. I just started running when the stress of school and work got to be too much. But then a few of the girls from work encouraged me to tag along with them to some boxing classes and one thing led to another and now I don’t look like a strong breeze could blow me over or snap me in half,” she told them, embarrassed that she hadn’t noticed her appearance had changed so much.

“You look great, Betts,” Jughead said without thinking and then wishing he hadn’t said anything.

Veronica eyed him suspiciously. “I’m going to go clean up a little in the kitchen. Betty, come give me a hand?”

She nodded and they went off to the kitchen. They could hear the TV turn on and Archie and Jughead laughed in the other room.

“What the hell was that?” Veronica asked, eyeing her friend and trying to will the truth out of her with sharp glances.

“What are you talking about?”

“You two just roll up in here on his motorcycle, you rocking your Serpent jacket, and he’s making puppy eyes at you all night and telling you how good you look. Which you do, by the way. Smoking hot,” Veronica unloaded on her.

“It’s nothing. He offered to drive so I could drink. The motorcycle is cold so I found my old jacket. And I can’t control his eyes,” Betty told her.“Did you know he is still living with FP?”

“Yeah I had heard that. So what’s that situation like?”

“I had no idea. FP told me he wasn’t there and didn’t mention it was because he told him go stay at the Wyrm and told me to sleep in my old room. Which apparently is still Jug’s room. And he hasn’t changed it at all.”

“He’s still sleeping in the princess bed?” Veronica scrunched up her face.

“Yes. Throw pillows and all,” Betty told her. “But FP suggested he stay at the clubhouse because of some serpent stuff so he did. He didn’t know I would be there. But he’s still staying at the clubhouse so I could have our old room. Last night he stayed at the house though.” Betty blushed.

“Betty Cooper did you spend the night with Jughead Jones?” She questioned, her jaw dropped in shock.

“He slept on the couch downstairs. I didn’t even know he stayed over. He was up with FP after the wake,” Betty told Veronica. Veronica raised a questioning eyebrow to her friend.

“Did you guys finally have the talk? We both know you two took off yesterday during the wake. This is the most calm I’ve seen him in years,” Veronica told her.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean after you left for school the first time, he was like an angry ball of energy or he was super depressed. There was no in-between. He tried to play it cool but he and Archie were having some pretty deep conversations. Then when you guys broke up, he was shattered. Like, completely destroyed. He started getting reckless with the Serpents and putting himself on the front lines of their deals and drinking all the time. Archie was having a hard time being around him because he was so negative and had become such a hot head. You know he got stabbed a few months ago on a dealing with the Ghoulies? Now, in the last week, its like nothing ever happened. He’s calm… like the eye of a storm,” Veronica warned.

“He got stabbed?” Betty was shocked. _Did he have some sort of death wish?_ He normally remained the brains of the operation and the other guys carried out the more dangerous aspects. _He had stepped down from his throne in order to throw himself out on the front lines._ She shook the thought from her head.

“We talked. We are trying to be friends. Its just hard when you have a history like ours and families that were meshed together after we had already been dating for years. We didn’t argue about one thing today though, and it was a nice change of pace from everything going on.”

“I am just a little shocked that you are both falling back into your old ways so quickly.”

“V, you invited both of us here, under the pretense that we didn’t know the other was coming. You wanted this. And now you’re telling me I shouldn’t even be friends with Jug because I may break him,” Betty told her. Veronica put down the towel she was using to dry dishes.

“You’re right. I wanted to see you guys together again. I miss having my friends around. I’m glad he’s okay right now, but what happens when you leave again to go back to Boston? I love you B, but if you break him again, he may not make it out of it this time,” Veronica explained.

“I hadn’t thought that far ahead yet to be honest,” Betty admitted. “I wasn’t sure how long I was going to stay. It was all kind of open ended because I didn’t know what to expect when I got here.”

“I didn’t realize having you here would kick him out of this tough guy phase he has been in and turn him back into our angsty Jughead Jones,” Veronica explained. “I would have just been happy with everyone being able to be in the same room. This whole thing with your mom sucks, B. As selfish as it is, I miss having my best friend here. And you can’t keep lying to me, hell, lying to yourself and saying you’re happy in Boston. I know you. I can hear it in your voice. You don’t seem excited about anything. There’s no sparkle in your eyes anymore. Just tell me what’s going on.”

“It’s been hard, V,” Betty explained, feeling a weight lift as she was able to speak openly to her friend. “Money is tight. Like really tight. I’m trying to keep up with my rent and bills and student loans and I’m barely able to pay everything each month. My apartment sucks. Its tiny and loud. I can hear everything through the walls. When my mom would come to visit, we would stay at a hotel because she was nervous to walk around my neighborhood. She begged me to move but it was honestly all I could afford and I wasn’t going to ask her or FP for money.”

“That guy Nick I was seeing is a complete asshole,” Betty continued. “The only reason I tolerate him at times is because I get so depressed that I will take the any form of affection I can get. My friends are work friends and they don’t really know me. And it was freeing for a while because they didn’t have expectations for me. I didn’t want them to know me as Betty Cooper with the crazy family or the Perfect Girl Next Door. I wanted to be taken seriously for me but I honestly don’t even know who I am anymore.”

“So come home,” Veronica pleaded. Seriously. What the hell is keeping you stuck there? You’re apartment? Lose it. You’re friends? You have people here who love you. You’re job? Get another one. You don’t even have to come home, but Betty, you need to find some place that makes you happy. I don’t want to watch my best friend lose herself to the darkness. I miss you.”


	12. Chapter 12

“Are you sure you’re good to drive?” Archie asked Jughead.

“Yeah man, I only had two beers over a period of four hours,” he promised. “I’m good.”

“Get her home safe, Jones,” Veronica told him as she handed Betty his helmet.

“I will,” he smirked and tied a red and black bandana over his face.

Betty reached her hands around his waist and he kicked the bike to life. She waved to her friends as they left their apartment.

The night air was cooler than it was before. It was a sure sign that summer was coming to an end faster than she had wanted. In a few weeks, Jelly Bean would be starting her senior year at Riverdale High. She still had a hard time believing JB was old enough to be out on her own soon.

Jughead drove them through the dark streets of Riverdale until he came upon the old Drive-In theater. It had been locked and boarded up years before. He killed the bike and rolled it up to a large tree on the perimeter fence.

“What are we doing here?” Betty asked.

“We had so many good times here. I just wanted to stop for the sake of nostalgia.”

Jughead had worked at the drive-in most of their teen years and even lived in the projection room for a short time before he had started sneaking in to Betty’s room at night. Archie used to drive his truck here on Saturday nights for the double features and the four of them would pile into the bed of the truck with pillows and blankets and eat popcorn. Jughead would run up to the projection booth when it was time to switch the reels and then be back with more snacks then they could possibly eat.

Jughead got off the bike, looking out into the now overgrown parking area where they had spent so many Saturday nights. Betty was still fairly tipsy and stumbled as she swung her legs off the bike. Jughead reached down and grabbed her around the waist to steady her as she got her legs back under her.

“I drank a little more than usual tonight. Sorry, Jug,” she apologized.

“Not a big deal, Betts,” he told her, smiling down at her. His lip curled a little on the edges in the way that made her turn to mush. “You looked happy tonight. Drunk, but happy.”

“I was,” she told him. Smiling back at him through her lashes. “I am.”

His arm was still around her waist and she reached up to cup his face with her hand. His heart fluttered and his face flushed under the heat of her hand.

“I don’t want to break you, Jug,” she told him, smile leaving her face. She looked scared and sad thinking about what Veronica had told her. Maybe it was her real feelings for heim peeking through or maybe it was the two bottles of red wine she had in the last few hours, but her confidence was up.

“What do you mean?” He asked, confused as to what she was talking about.

“Veronica said that this was just the eye of the hurricane and when I leave, Hurricane Jughead will start spinning again. She and Archie worry about you. I worry about you, Jug. I never stopped worrying about you. I don’t want to hurt you again.”

She could feel the tears building up behind her eyes and pulled away from him. She backed up a few steps and could feel her back against the tree they parked beneath. “I’m sorry, Jug. For everything.”

He took a few steps towards her. She looked up at him with her big blue eyes and he placed his hands on her hips. He knew that Betty Cooper reacted to alcohol in one of two ways, and unfortunately for him it looked like tonight would end up with her emotional and teary instead of horny and wanting him.

His voice became more husky when he told her, “I’m a big boy and I can make my own mistakes, Cooper.”

She pulled him closer to her. _Maybe my luck is changing,_ he thought to himself. He pressed himself against her and she reached her arms around his neck. His lips were soft against hers. He held one of his hands around to the small of her back. She slipped her tongue into his mouth and he began kissing her with an urgency she hadn’t felt in a long time. His hands explored her body, enjoying the new curves he found under his fingertips, wanting to enjoy every handful he could find. She pulled off his crown beanie and ran her fingers through his thick curls. He let out a moan as she fisted his hair.

She leaned back against the tree as Jughead left a trail of kisses and nips down her neck to her collarbone. The little noises she made only turned him on more. She began getting dizzy from the intensity for each other mixed with the wine.

“Juggie,” she said breathlessly as he continued to kiss her neck. “We need to go home,” she pleaded.

“Are you sure?”

“As much as getting in trouble for public indecency may be for you, I’m too drunk to outrun anyone tonight.”

“Good point.” He told her and had to pull himself away. She steadied herself against the tree before walking back towards the bike where Jughead was very blatantly trying to adjust himself in his tight jeans so he could get on the motorcycle.

He helped her back onto the bike and made sure her helmet was on securely. She wrapped her arms around his waist and pulled herself close to him. Her head was swimming and rested it against his back.

“You okay back there?”

“Take me home, Jones!” She half shouted and laughed.

“You got it, Betts,” he told her with a wide smile plastered on his face.

He kicked the bike to life and took off through the dark streets of Riverdale. Every time they stopped he reached his hand down to hers to warm her fingers with his hands and asked her if she was still okay. He had only seen Betty drunk a few times in his life and this was definitely the first time he put her on the back of his bike in this state.

He pulled into the driveway of the house and helped Betty off the bike before taking his helmet off of her. She sauntered up to the front door, tripping on the one step to the door. He caught her around the shoulders, opened the door, and then bent down to put his other arm under her knees before easily lifting her and carrying her into the house. She buried her head into his shoulder, struggling to keep her eyes open.

FP’s car wasn’t in the driveway and Jelly Bean’s door was shut when he carried Betty upstairs and laid her down in their old bed. Jughead went to check on Jelly Bean, she was asleep with a movie playing on her tablet. The earbuds still in her ears. Jughead quietly shut her door and went back to where he left Betty. She was curled up on her pillow and lightly snoring.

Jughead went back downstairs to get a glass of water for Betty. He then searched the bathroom for some aspirin that he left for her next to the glass of water on the end table on her side of the bed. He changed into his plaid pajama pants, brushed his teeth, and came back into the room.

“Juggie, give me a hand would you,” Betty asked half asleep. She was sitting up trying to pull her boots off. He helped her untie them and get them off.

“Pants!” She announced and started undoing her jeans. He helped her wiggle out of them, making a mental note to remember what her firm ass looked like in her lace underwear. She crawled back into the bed and he pulled the comforter up over her.

“I left you some water and some aspirin, Betts,” he told her. “Get some sleep.”

“Where are you going?” She asked, drunken confusion on her face.

“You’re drunk and I don’t want you to do anything you regret. I’m going to go down and sleep on the sofa.”

“That sofa sucks. Just get in here. I promise to stay on my side if you do.”

He knew that would be hard, but he also didn’t want to spend another night on the sofa downstairs or back out at the clubhouse apartment. He knew deep down this is exactly where he wanted to be. He turned off the light and pulled back the comforter on his side of the bed. By the time his head hit the pillow, he could hear Betty’s breathing even out as she was already asleep again.

“Good night, Betts.”


	13. Chapter 13

Jughead woke up to the sound of his phone buzzing on the nightstand next to him. He opened his eyes, seeing the sun was just starting to rise and fill the room with golden light. He looked down to the messy blonde hair masking the beautiful woman asleep on his chest. Betty’s arm was draped across his stomach and his chest tightened, knowing this feeling was too good to be true.

He reached for his phone.

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _Ghoulies hit up Sunny Side last night. Toni’s trailer is trashed. Ace tried to stop them and they got the stomp on him._

**_Jughead:_ ** _Are they okay?_

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _Yeah, Toni is just bruised up a little. She’ll be fine. Ace has a few broken ribs._

**_Jughead:_ ** _Ghoulies are starting to be more of a problem. Thats twice this week they have moved into our territory. We may need to put them back in their place._

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _Agreed._

**_Jughead:_ ** _Get Fangs to help Toni at her place if she lets you. I’ll head out now. Meet me at the Wyrm in 20 minutes?_

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _You got it Boss._

Betty looked up at Jughead, light streaming in the room making her head pound. She could see the frown forming on his face. “You okay?” She asked.

“Yeah. Just serpent stuff. No biggie,” he told her. Shifting his gaze back down to her body curled around him. “I just want it known that I followed through on my promise to you and stayed on my side of the bed, Cooper.”

She laughed and peeled herself off of his chest and back over to her pillow.

“Hey, I never said you had to move,” he told her, winking. She rubbed her head and pulled the blankets back up over her face. “How are you feeling?” He asked.

“Not good,” she groaned.

“I’ve got to go,” he said as she pulled the blankets back down over her face. She was hoping they could just stay in bed all day and let her nurse her hangover. “But, I left you some water and aspirin on your nightstand. Your phone is charging on the desk. I’ll even make coffee before I leave, okay?”

“Thanks, Jug,” she told him. He leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on the crown on her head before pulling on his clothes from last night.

“Get some more sleep. I’ll text you later.”

“Mmmhmmm,” she said as she was already going back to sleep.

Betty woke up again to hear his bike fire up in the driveway signaling his departure. The scent of coffee floated up to their room. _What the hell am I doing?_ She thought to herself. She flung her head back into her pillows and began replaying their time together at the drive-in from the night before. Thinking about his hands on her body, she found herself breathing in his scent from the pillows beside her. Veronica’s warning continued to play on repeat in the back of her mind. _Don’t break him._

She slept for another hour before she decided she should drag herself out of bed and get a shower. She had only been hungover a few times in her life, but this was definitely one of the worst times. Her head was pounding, her stomach was doing flips. Betty turned on the shower and sat on the floor of the tub, letting the hot water wash over her. So many things had happened in the last 24 hours.

She mentally ran through a list of what she was certain of. Her friends missed her. She admitted a lot to Veronica last night in the kitchen. She and Jug were friends again. Friends who kiss each other and make out in abandoned lots and apparently cuddle half naked while drunk. Except Jug wasn’t drunk.

Betty knew Veronica was right about some things. She hated Boston and everything she had there. She had been lonely since she first got there five years ago and had been going through the motions to tell herself she was happy. Moving was a huge decision. It was going to take some planning and she wanted to do it on her own terms. She was going to do this for herself. Not for Veronica, not for Archie, and not for Jughead. She needed a change if she was going to get back to being Betty Cooper.

———————————————————————————————————————

“I think we need to pay Malachi a little visit,” Jughead spoke to a handful of Serpents around the thick wood table in the conference room. He leaned back in his chair at the head of the table and crossed his boots as he kicked his feet up. “The Ghoulies have been trying to move into Serpent territory over the last few months and have made two attacks in the last week at the corner store and over at Sunny Side. We need to act if we want to keep them in their place.”

The group acknowledged what he was saying, nodding in approval and sipping on drinks from the bar.The Ghoulies were another gang in Southside that primarily dealt in harder drugs, namely cocaine and heroin. The Serpents owned businesses in Southside and had their territory clearly marked over the past few generations. The Ghoulies generally stuck to the most southern edge of Southside on the city limits of Riverdale. They moved their drug businesses around between buildings they owned in the industrial area. Recently, they had purchased a night club. It was a well known fact that their leader, Malachi, was using the night club to distribute.

“Sweet Pea, I need you to round up about twenty of our guys. Have them meet here at 11. I want to ride over to Hysteria tonight and have a friendly conversation with Malachi.”

“A friendly conversation huh? Sounds like you’re showing up with a small army.” A small voice asked from the doorway. Toni Topaz was stood around 5’5” and had long pink hair that curled and danced around the Serpent tattoo on her collarbone. The bruises under her left eye caught Jughead’s attention and he could feel the rage building up inside of him. The Serpents were a rough group, but they still had a code. The guys didn’t beat up on females, but they did have female members that would do that for them if the need arose.

“Maybe not so friendly,” he finished. His parents had been family friends with hers since they were in elementary school. Jughead was a few years older than her so she had normally played with Jelly Bean.While he grew up going to school with Betty and Archie, Toni stayed enrolled on the Southside. It kept her tough and she became a member when she was only fifteen. She had become like a sister to him since he joined the Serpents.

“Don’t worry, Jug, I’m not going to ask to go,” she said, sensing he was already going to tell her no. “I’ll take Ace’s shift at the bar tonight. I don’t think he’s going to be up for it anyways.”

Jughead nodded at her suggestion. He was protective of her and already wasn’t ecstatic about what happened at Sunny Side last night. The bruising only intensified that rage for him. His eyes darkened and he started to think about how this conversation with the Ghoulies leader would go. “See you all at 11.”

As soon as the conference room cleared out, Jughead headed up to the apartment above the bar. He had been crashing here on and off for a while now. He needed to get his things together for tonight and that included his gun. He didn’t always carry one like some of the other Serpents, but he felt he might need it tonight if his negotiations with Malachi did not go in the direction he wanted.

After getting what he needed, he looked around the apartment. He couldn’t remember the last time he cleaned. He rolled his eyes and realized this might end up being some place he would bring Betty back to at some point and slid the doors leading out to his balcony open to get some fresh air into the small space. He spent the next hour picking up laundry, doing dishes, and wiping down all the surfaces in the bathroom.

There was a knock at the door. Jughead opened it and let Sweet Pea inside the apartment.

“Sweetheart, you cleaned! You shouldn’t have,” he said looking around the living room.

“Yeah it was starting to look like a frat house in here,” Jughead answered.

“You sure it doesn’t have something to do with a certain blonde showing up back in town last week?” Sweet Pea asked, smiling at his longtime friend and Serpent Leader. “Maybe the one you have been spending so much time with?”

“God, you’re irritating,” Jughead told him, running his hands through his hair.

“Trust me, I was an extremely irritating child,” Sweet Pea joked.

“Are we all good for tonight then,” Jughead asked, changing the subject.

“That we are. We have 20 men ready to ride out of here at 11 and back you up at Hysteria. Ace is recovering at home with a bottle Jack and Toni is manning the bar in his absence. We can have our chat at Hysteria and then you can go home and play house with Cooper.”

“We aren’t playing house,” he told him in a voice that was more firm than it warranted. Jughead’s heart sunk a little. He wished he were playing house with Betty and not having to deal with Serpent business.

“Sure, sure. Just don’t forget about us down here in the snake pit, okay? We don’t like when mommy and daddy fight,” he said jokingly.

“I’m going to take a shower,” Jughead said, walking towards the bathroom. “Did you care to join me or are you going to let yourself out?”

“Yeah, okay, I’m going,” Sweetpea said and shut the door behind him.

Jughead turned on the shower and picked up his phone.

**_Jug:_ ** _Feeling better, Betts?_

**_Betts:_ ** _I’m managing._

Jughead smiled to himself, imagining Betty curled up on him in bed this morning. Even with a hangover, she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

**_Betts:_ ** _Do you want to come over for dinner? JB wants spaghetti._

**_Jug:_ ** _I wouldn’t miss it._

_——————————————————————————————————————————_

Betty searched through the pantry for the things she would need for dinner and realized she would have to make a trip to the store. Walking the aisles with her small basket was almost therapeutic for Betty. She had always loved grocery shopping with her mother as a child, even though her mother controlled almost every calorie she ate. She filled her basket and went to the checkout.

“Betty Cooper? I heard a rumor you were in town!”

Betty turned to look at her old friend Kevin. “Kev! Oh my gosh! How are you?” She asked as she threw an arm around his neck for a hug.

“So good Betty! But look at you!” He exclaimed and holding her out at arms length. “Girl we have got to go out while you’re home. And you need to meet my new boyfriend.”

“That would be awesome Kevin,” she told him. Clubbing was always more of Veronica’s scene but she did miss his enthusiasm and confidence. “I’m not sure when I’m leaving though.”

“Then what are your plans for tonight?”

“Making dinner for the family but otherwise I don’t have anything set in stone.”

“Would this family also include a super hot Serpent named Jughead?”

“Maybe,” she blushed. “Just don’t make it a thing. We are trying to figure it all out.”

“Say no more,” he said as he turned an invisible key to his lips. “Invite Veronica! I’ll pick you up at 10,” he said as she loaded up her groceries.

“Bye Kev.”


	14. Chapter 14

“That smells amazing,” Jughead said as he strode through the front door and over to Betty. He wrapped his arms around shoulders in a hug and gave her a quick peck on the cheek while she stood at the stove cooking. She could feel herself blushing and knew it was pointless to try to hide it.

Jelly Bean came into the kitchen and Betty asked her to help with the salad. Jelly Bean started cutting up vegetables and tossing them in a bowl while Jughead leaned on the counter picking at the food as they prepared it and popping it in his mouth. FP got home from work as Jelly Bean had set out plates.

“Look at my two girls making a home cooked meal,” FP gushed. He put a theatrical hand to his heart before placing a kiss on Jelly Bean’s cheek.

“Dish up,” Betty said. Jughead was already at the stove piling pasta, sauce, and meatballs on his plate.

“What happened to the rule that Jug had to let everyone else get food first?” Jelly Bean asked as it seemed he might have half the pot of spaghetti on his plate. “Is that not a rule any more?” She asked again, her eyes widening as she watched him continue to pile food onto his plate.

FP laughed and told her to elbow her way in there. Jughead decided then would be a good time to hold the bowl of garlic bread out of her reach as she tried to jump to get it. He eventually let it back down to the counter.

“You’re so annoying, Jug,” she told him, sticking her tongue out at him. Jelly Bean then turned her attention to her father and asked him in her sweetest voice, “After dinner, I’m going to go meet my friends at the mall. Is that okay, dad?”

“Is your homework done?” FP asked.

“Most of it,” she said through a mouthful of spaghetti.

“Its a school night JB. Be home by eight,” he told her. “I mean it. If you’re not here I’m going to go out looking for you in the cruiser,” he warned.

“Okay, okay dad.”

After dinner, JB left to go to the mall with her friends. FP had retired to the living room, yelling out answers to Jeopardy at the TV. Jughead and Betty cleaned up from dinner in the kitchen. They stood near each other at the sink, aware of the electricity that was forming between them when their arms grazed each other.

“How was your day?” She asked, knowing he wouldn’t spill any details on whatever he had to take care of earlier.

“Fairly uneventful. Sweet Pea says hi though,” he said. Jughead gave into his own desires and moved to stand behind Betty at the sink and wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled his lips into her neck. “How was your day?”

“Fairly uneventful too. I slept. I took a shower. I went through a few more boxes and I got groceries at the store,” she told him, leaning into his warm body wrapped around her. She was certain her heart was beating so loud in her chest that he could hear it. _Play it cool, Cooper._ “Oh, and I ran into Kevin Keller at the store. He’s picking me up at ten and we are going out with his new boyfriend and Veronica.”

Jughead pulled away a little and gave her a shocked look. “Betty Cooper going out two nights in a row? What will the neighbors think?” He joked.

“Did you want to come out with us?” She asked, secretly hoping he would say yes but knowing it would be hard to keep herself off of him if Veronica was there or not.

“I would hate to be the fifth wheel to that over the top group,” he laughed. “And I have to go take care of some Serpent stuff tonight.”

“Do you think you’ll be back tonight?” She turned in his arms, reaching up around his neck and teasing his hair with her fingers. He leaned into her fingers, enjoying the feeling of her nails on his scalp.

“I don’t know, Betts,” he told her. He looked stern but he wanted to be as honest with her as he could. “I would much rather pick up where we left off last night at the drive-in, but I have to do this tonight and I’m not sure when I’ll be done. I may just stay at the clubhouse if it’s late.”

She was a little upset because she too would much rather keep exploring this new territory with him, but she knew that whatever was going on, he would need to be there. “Just be careful, okay? And let me know where you end up.”

“Of course, Betts,” he told her and reached down with his hand to her face and kissed her deeply.

“What is Great Britain?!” FP yelled from the living room, breaking them from their trance.

“The kitchen looks clean,” Jughead said.

“Agreed,” she told him as he grabbed her hand and pulled her upstairs to their old room.

Betty ran in front of him up the stairs but Jughead was close behind. He shut the door and closed the distance between them with two quick strides. He landed on the bed and pulled Betty down with him. He pinned her under his body and propped himself up on his elbow, looking down at her, with his other hand playing with the exposed skin on her hip. She reached up to his face and pulled his down to hers so that she could kiss him. His lips were warm and somehow were both soft and firm at the same time. She breathed in the scent of his body wash as he began trailing kisses along her neck and collarbone.

“Juggie,” she said breathlessly between kisses. “I have to get ready. Kevin will be here soon.”

He groaned, rolling off of her and putting his face in one of the pillows. “You’re killing me, Betts. I’m going to turn into a Smurf at this rate.”

She wanted him just as much if not more than he wanted her at that moment, but Kevin would be there soon and she wanted to look good. “What time do you have to leave?” She asked Jughead as she sorted through clothes in the closet.

“I have to be at the clubhouse around 10:45. So I’ll probably stay here until 10 or so.”

Betty grabbed a short black dress out of the closet and went into the bathroom to put on makeup. Jughead was playing music and scrolling through his phone when she came out of the bathroom.

“Holy hell, Betts,” he said, holding his mouth open.

“Is it too much?” She asked. Her hair fell in loose curls around her face and smokey makeup was carefully painted onto her lids. She brushed a nude lipstick on her lips and coated them in a shiny pink gloss. Her dress was form fitting but not tight. It was a strappy black number with black sequins that sparkled in the light. Her legs looked long and lean in the nude heels she had borrowed from Veronica.

“Too much?” He asked, looking her up and down. “Its not enough, Cooper. You’re gonna have guys hitting on you all night.”

“Jealous?”

“Yes.”

She walked over to the vanity and picked up a bottle of her old perfume and sprayed some on her neck. “Don’t be. I’m going out with Kevin and his boyfriend. At the end of the night I will be back here in bed, which is more than I can say for you, Jug.”

Her phone vibrated on the desk.

“Kevin will be here in a few minutes.”

“That gives me a few minutes to enjoy this then,” he said, pressing his lips to hers and slipping his tongue into her mouth. He kissed down her neck and nipped at the sensitive area behind her ear, her hands tracing the outlines of the muscles on his chest and abs. He reached down, hitching one of her legs around his hips. He ran his hand up her leg and beneath the hem of her short dress. She kissed him harder, running her fingers through his hair and pulling him closer. He ran his fingers along the thin lace barrier between her center and the rest of the world, feeling her warmth and wetness beneath her thong. She moved her hips against him as he slid a finger into her hot center, feeling her breath catch as he used his thumb to circle her bundle of nerves.

“Juggie,” she said between breaths.

He put her leg down and turned her around to face the mirror of the vanity. He stood behind her, pulling up her dress and sliding his hands back into her panties. She reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck behind her and watched in the mirror and he continued to work the bundle of nerves. She could feel his hard cock pressing into her backside. Her knees were beginning to get weak, her head spinning, knowing she was read to go over the edge.

“Come for me, Betts,” he whispered in her ear.

She watched in the mirror as she lost all control. “Oh—- Jug—-,” she let out as her walls tightened around his fingers. He held her there, watching her come undone in the mirror. He kissed her neck as her heavy breathing slowed down.

“That may have been the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” he told her. _I will definitely be keeping that image in my spank bank, he told himself._

Her phone buzzed. “Looks like Kevin is here,” Jughead said. He slowly removed his hand from her panties and sucked her juices off his fingers. “I guess its time to go.”


	15. Chapter 15

Betty straightened her dress and checked herself in the mirror one last time. She noticed a red mark starting to form on her collarbone and she adjusted her hair to cover the mark. Jughead walked her out the door and waved goodnight to his father.

“Jug!” Kevin called out from the car. “You sure you don’t want to come with us tonight?”

“I’m gonna have to pass tonight, gentleman,” he told Kevin, throwing him a smirk and a wink. Kevin blushed. “Keep the guys away from her and get her home in one piece please.”

“Aye-Aye captain,” Kevin told him.

Jughead eyed Kevin’s boyfriend from the front seat, knowing very well who he was, with or without his Serpent cut on. He watched as they pulled out of the driveway and left down the road. He swung his leg over his bike and went towards the Wyrm. This was going to be a long night.

——————————————————————————————————————

“I’m Joaquin,” the brooding boy in the front seat next to Kevin said as he reached a hand out to Betty. He had longer hair that he kept pushed back from his face, dark features and olive complexion, but his eyes were a pale blue. He wore black jeans, ankle boots, and a gray button up shirt.

Kevin pulled up to Veronica’s apartment complex. She was waiting on the sidewalk, wearing a red and black dress and black heels. “Hey hot stuff, need a ride?” He called to her.

“I would love one!” She told Kevin, striking a pose before she climbed into the backseat next to Betty.

“Holy shit Betty, you look amazing,” Veronica told her. “I can’t believe you weren’t beating the guys off with a stick in Boston.”

“Definitely not. I wear scrubs most of the time. And those are just a step up from pajamas.”

Veronica then began quizzing Kevin and Joaquin on everything from current gossip to the club they were going to. Betty sat fairly quietly in her seat watching as the Southside creeped past the windows as they drove. Her phone vibrated in her purse.

**_Jug:_ ** _Thank you for dinner._

**_Betts:_ ** _My pleasure._

**_Jug:_ ** _And dessert._

Betty blushed reading her messages and replaying the very hot encounter she and Jug had not an hour ago. She shifted in her seat, rubbing her thighs together, craving more friction at the thought of his hands on her.

“What are you smiling about over there?” Veronica asked.

“Its nothing,” Betty played off. The group pulled into the gravel lot of Hysteria.

“This is the newest place in Riverdale,” Kevin gushed as they walked towards the bouncer. “Its suppose to be where anyone who is anyone is hanging out.”

Joaquin had his arm around Kevin’s shoulder and Betty and Veronica linked arms as they entered through the dark entryway of Hysteria. The music was loud and heat was radiating off the dance floor.

Joaquin lead them over to a table on the other side of the dance floor. “I’m going to go get drinks,” Veronica told the group as they settled into the booth.

“So how did you guys meet?,” Betty asked Kevin and Joaquin.

“Weirdly enough at the Whyte Wyrm. I was there on a Grindr date that ended up being absolutely horrible. Joaquin was there and saw how bad it was going from the other end of the bar. He was my knight in leather armor,” Kevin said as he looked up at Joaquin with loving eyes. “And we have been together since.”

“Looking at a year now,” Joaquin chipped in, kissing Kevin on the mouth.

“Oh, Betts! He is suppose to be getting his official cut soon,” Kevin said to Betty.

“You’re a prospect?” She asked. She was surprised Jughead hadn’t said anything when they had picked her up.

“Yeah, I know how it looks. I left college to come back and take care of my dad. He passed a little over a year ago and the Serpents have been like a second family for me. But you know Jughead and FP right?”

“You could say that,” she answered him. Not wanting to give away too much and not really knowing what she and Jughead were anymore. He obviously knew the answer since Jughead was there when they picked her up tonight from FP’s house. “FP married my mother about five years ago but they had been high school sweet hearts.”

Veronica was back with a tray of drinks and four shot glasses of cinnamon whiskey. “Drink up bitches! Lets do this!”

The four downed their shots and started on their drinks before heading to the packed dance floor. Veronica pulled Betty with her during each song. The two sweating and moving to the music. Betty laughing and smiling, feeling free.

Joaquin and Kevin were making out in the booth when Betty and Veronica had grabbed refills and headed back to take a break and cool off. Betty pulled her hair up, trying to cool herself off.

“Betty is that a hickey?” Kevin asked, pointing to the mark on her collarbone that was significantly more pronounced now.

“Oh. My. God,” Veronica chimed in. “He branded you.”

“What? No,” Betty tried to play it off and pull her hair back down over the spot in question. “I must have burnt myself with a curling iron.”

“Whatever you say,” Veronica told her, rolling her eyes.

There was a noticeable shift in the mood of the bar. Twenty leather clad men came through the front entrance and were lead to a red velvet curtain in the back corner of the bar that was armed with a very large man with a ponytail and face tattoos. Betty couldn’t see who they were, but she was fairly certain she knew the outline of the tallest one leading the pack.

“Joaquin, did the Serpents have something going down here tonight?” Betty asked as hushed as she could over the loud music.

“I don’t really know. They had a meeting this morning but I wasn’t invited to it. Maybe?”

———————————————————————————————————————

The streets were flooded with the sounds of motorcycles as the Serpents left the Wyrm, lead by their King and his second in command. The bar was packed and the parking lot full when they arrived. The twenty men left their bikes out front and were immediately waved in by the doorman as they approached. Jughead was thankful the doorman recognized them and didn’t make them wait in line and pay to get in like the rest of the people standing outside. _That could have been embarassing,_ he told himself.

Jughead and Sweet Pea lead the men through the bar and straight to the red velvet curtain towards the back of the club that opened up to the suite that Malachi stayed in while the club was open. He was surrounded by his favorite things: cocaine and cheap women. Malachi was dressed in a dark purple button up shirt with far too many buttons undone at the top. A thick gold necklace rested in his coarse chest hair. His overall aesthetic screamed 70s porn star. There were a handful of Ghoulies with him and stationed throughout the suite.

“Mr. Jones, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Malachi hissed, obviously annoyed that his good time was being interrupted.

Jughead was feeling cocky and walked over to the low couch Malachi was sitting on and sat down, kicking his feet up in Malachi’s direction. Sweet Pea took his spot behind Jughead, arms folded across his chest. The rest of the Serpents filed in and filled the room.

“I just came to have a friendly visit, Malachi.”

“You brought an army for a friendly visit, Snake,” Malachi told him. “What do you want?”

“It seems you and your guys may need a new map, Malachi,” Jughead told him. Reaching over to the coffee table littered with lines of cocaine on it and picking up the martini that Malachi had just set down. Jughead took a long sip of his rival’s drink, almost emptying the glass. “The lines have been drawn clearly and yet your boys not only overstepped them twice this week, but they beat up on one of our girls.”

Malachi waved his finger over to the bartender, asking for another drink. “I’m not sure what you are talking about. What would we want with the Sunny Side trailer park?”

“For someone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about, you seem to know where your guys were last night. I’m assuming you’re looking for more places to manufacture or sell,” he told Malachi. Jughead leaned in close to the Ghoulie boss, his eyes darkening and his voice now low. "I don’t give a fuck what you do on your side of town, but keep it out of Serpent territory. If I so much as see another one of your guys on our side or hear that they are selling on our turf, my men have full permission to take care of the problem.”

“Mr. Jones, we are two very similar people. We are trying to make a profit. We just sell different stock. There is no reason we can’t work together.”

“Like hell there isn’t. We aren’t cooking drugs up and we sure as hell aren’t selling to kids. We have legitimate businesses. We are nothing alike.”

“Lets not kid anyone here. Not everything you do is legitimate. Its a good cover, sure, but you can’t, in good conscious, tell me the Serpents are the leather clad Mother Theresa’s of Southside,” Malachi sneered. Jughead knew he was right. They had been running guns for a few years now to other gangs on top of having legitimate Serpent owned businesses.

“Keep your men off our turf,” Jughead warned.

“You would have to keep yours out of Ghoulies territory as well then.”

“That isn’t a problem,” Jughead told him through his teeth.

“Really?” Malachi questioned. He laughed to himself, “Because I’m fairly certain two of your snakes are down in the bar now having a great time.”

Jughead wasn’t sure who would be there at Hysteria. Maybe a few of the girls who hung around the Wyrm, looking to get laid, but they weren’t Serpents. It was pretty well known that this night club was owned by the Ghoulies and the Serpents had other night club options on their turf in the Southside. Malachi could tell Jughead was trying to figure out who would be there.

“I’ll make sure Betty gets home safe and sound,” Malachi sneered as he reached out and patted Jughead on the knee.

Jughead stood up, towering over Malachi. “Don’t fucking touch her.” Jughead then realized he had never asked her where she was going tonight. And Kevin and the prospect picked her up. _Shit! He thought to himself. Shit! Shit! Shit!_ He had assumed they were going out on the Northside. This was a problem. She was here, Malachi knew who she was. This wasn’t going to be the easy in and out conversation he was looking for.

Sweet Pea signaled to half of the men to head back out to the bar. Jughead saw them go, hoping they would get her out of here before he went totally off the handle.

“Oh _I_ wont, but I can’t say the same about anyone else. She did come in here looking like quite the _snack_ ,” Malachi told him. He took pleasure in watching the rage rise in Jughead.

Sweet Pea took a step forward and put a hand on Jughead’s shoulder, trying to pull him back into the reality of the situation. This wasn’t a time for him to rampage. The Serpents outnumbered the Ghoulies in the suite still, but who knew how many were in the building all together?

Jughead reached into the back of his pants and pulled out his 1911, waving it at Malachi in his rage. “If I hear your boys can’t keep themselves occupied in their own turf, I’m going to make it throughly clear to them who runs the Southside.”

“I’m sure Betty won’t have a hard time keeping them occupied,” Malachi smiled viciously.

Jughead pulled the trigger at that moment, shooting Malachi in the shin. “Stay the fuck away from her, or help me God, the next one will be in your skull.”

Malachi collapsed back onto the couch. Sweet Pea grabbed Jughead by the shoulders and pushed him out of the suite. The Serpents retreated back into the bar, followed by the Ghoulies who had been his muscle. Fists began to fly as the partygoers in the bar tried to make room for the brawl. Jughead began scanning the room looking for Betty.

“Jug!” Veronica’s voice cut through the chaos. His eyes spun to in the direction it had come from. Veronica and Kevin were trapped in the booth with Joaquin throwing punches at a Ghoulie near them. Betty stood in the corner, her eyes locked on Jug’s. A Ghoulie had her hair in his fist and a knife to her throat. Sweet Pea had followed Jughead’s gaze and saw the standoff on the other side of the bar. He went to Jughead’s side, ready to stand by his long time friend.

Jughead’s eyes were almost black as he pushed his way through the crowd with Sweet Pea on his heel. With one lunge, Jughead’s uppercut made contact to the knife wielding Ghoulie, knocking him unconscious. Sweet Pea went to finish off the Ghoulie Joaquin had been holding off and pulled Kevin and Veronica out of the booth and out the front door.

Betty stumbled, now that her hair was free, but grabbed onto Jughead’s side. She could feel the anger radiating off his body. He pressed his hand into the small of her back and out of the bar, blocking her from swinging fists and thrown drinks. Sweet Pea had rounded up the rest of the Serpents and they were all getting on their bikes and heading out of the parking lot as Jughead pushed Betty outside.

“Get on the bike,” he hissed at her.

“I’ll go with Kevin,” she told him sounding scared as she started to step away. Kevin and Veronica were in the car with Joaquin at the wheel.

“This isn’t negotiable. Get on the bike now,” he told her. He fired it up and held the helmet out to her. “Now.”

She climbed on, knowing the short black dress and heels were probably giving bystanders more of a show than they deserved. She wrapped her arms around him as he hit the gas and they sped away from Hysteria.


	16. Chapter 16

They pulled into the Whyte Wyrm a short time later. Betty felt frozen and it wasn’t just from the motorcycle ride. Jughead, in his rage, was cold to her back at Hysteria. Jughead pulled around to the back of the bar where Sweet Pea and a few of the other guys were waiting. He swung a leg off the bike, picked Betty up and set her back down with her feet under her, put his hand on the small of her back and led her inside the back door.

“Conference room. Twenty minutes,” Jughead told Sweet Pea as he continued to lead Betty to the back stairwell towards the apartment above the bar. Betty couldn’t keep up with his pace in her heels.

“Jug,” she said. “Stop.”

He paused and she had time to slip her heels off. He was still breathing heavy with tense shoulders moving up and down with every breath. When he saw she was satisfied, they continued back up the stairs to the locked door of the apartment. He fished his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door.

Once they were through it, he slammed the door so hard that it made Betty jump. He saw her cringe as the door slammed and he suddenly felt very ashamed for shutting it so harshly. He went to the kitchen island, placing his elbows on it and resting his head in his hands.

“I didn’t know,” Betty said sheepishly from across the small room. She couldn’t hold back the tears any longer. “I don’t even know what happened, Jug.”

Something in him shifted and he looked up, no longer fuming. He ran his hands down his face in frustration. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and blowing it out slowly. He looked at Betty and watched her breaking. He took the few steps towards her and brought her to his chest and wrapped his arms around her. Her skin felt icy and he held her tighter, hoping to warm her up.

“I know. I wasn’t mad at you.”

She looked up at him through her wet lashes. “You seemed pretty mad at me, Jug.”

“I’m not. I just got into some shit tonight that you were on the unfortunate receiving end of. That’s not what I wanted.” He pulled her over to the small sofa. He sat down and pulled her into his lap. She tucked her cold toes under his thigh and she rested her head on his shoulder, his arms wrapped around her. “What happened before I saw you?”

“We were there dancing and drinking. Joaquin kept looking around like he was nervous. I didn’t really even think about it at the time. I think I just thought it was because Kevin is so over the top and Joaquin seemed more private. But I went to the bathroom and these two guys came in while I was washing my hands and grabbed me by the hair. Told me to stay quiet if I knew what was good for me and drug me back out into the bar. Then it sounded like a gun went off and everyone started fighting.”

“That was partially my fault,” he said, rubbing small circles into her back and pulling a throw blanket around her, aware of how cold she must be. _I should have let her ride in the car, he told himself._

Jughead took a deep breath. He thought about the rules that all Serpents are required to uphold as members. _Only Serpents can know Serpent business._ He decided there was a loophole and she needed the information.

“You’re still technically a Serpent and apparently the Ghoulies have decided you are my kryptonite, so there isn’t any use keeping you out of the know,” he told her. She looked up at him, knowing that Serpent business was part of the reason she had left before. “We had a meeting with the Ghoulies’s leader, Malachi, tonight about some territory issues. They own Hysteria so we met him there. Ghoulies broke into and trashed the corner store last week and last night they went into Sunny Side and roughed up Toni and Ace while they thrashed her trailer.”

“Are they okay?” Betty asked. She and Toni had been close before she had left town the first time.

“Toni is fine. She’s downstairs. Just some bruises. Ace got it a little worse and had some broken ribs. Fangs went over today and helped Toni put her trailer back together. I guess they totally tossed it when they broke in.”

Betty snuggled in closer, feeling like she might be able to feel her fingers soon. “But our meeting wasn’t going well. Malachi wanted to do business with us and work together and expand the Ghoulie territory. I said no.They can do whatever they want on their turf, but they have to stay off of ours. Thats when he mentioned two Serpents were in the club tonight and when I realized it was you and Joaquin he was talking about.”

Betty watched him as he explained what happened, filling in the blanks of her night.

“Malachi went on to explain how he had planned to make you the Ghoulies's entertainment for the night if I didn’t agree to join forces with him,” he sneered. Jughead did not like the thought of Betty with anyone else, especially against her will. “So I shot him.”

“You what?!” Betty pulled away from him, looking him in the eye. “When did you even start carrying a gun?!”

Betty had always assumed he carried a gun when he had to, but she had never actually seen him with one. Hell, even she owned a gun but she never carried it and couldn’t even remember the last time she had even fired it.

“It was just in the leg,” Jughead tried to play it off. “Look I didn’t go in there looking for blood, but when he mentioned you and threatened you, I started seeing red. And I lost control. Well most of it. Malachi is still alive.”

“And then you came to find me and now we are here.”

“Basically.”

“Jug, I didn’t know any of this was going on. I haven’t been here to know about any of it. I don’t know who is friends with who and where the territory lines fall anymore.”

“I know. I should have asked where you were going. I just sort of assumed it was that gay bar, Innuendo, or one of the Northside clubs. That part is my fault,” he told her.

She was quiet for a minute. Taking in all the information he had just told her.

“I have to go downstairs to talk to Sweet Pea. We need a game plan. I don’t want you out of my sight though. The possibility of retaliation is way too high with how we left Hysteria tonight.”

“Okay,” she told him. “Then lets go talk to Sweet Pea.”

She stood up, putting her heels back on. There was no way she was walking around the bar barefoot.

“You really do look exceptionally good tonight, Betts,” he told her. She smiled up at him as he laughed and picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

“What the hell, Jug?”

“We both know you can’t do the stairs in those heels and we need to get down to the conference room like two minutes ago,” he laughed as he closed up the apartment behind him and carried her down the stairs. “I’ll put you down when we get to the bottom.”

He set her down at the bottom of the stairs. Even being held up at knife point, she was still a bombshell. Jughead opened the conference room doors and she walked in beside him, their fingers laced together.

“Our queen has returned!” Cheered Sweet Pea as he made a show of pulling out a chair for her next to Jughead’s.“And may I say? She’s looking smoking hot this evening!”

“No, you may not say,” Jughead told him, crossing his arms and shooting a menacing look at Sweet Pea. He was incredibly possessive of his things and this, once again, included Betty.

“Thanks Sweet Pea,” Betty blushed and took her seat.

Jughead ran through what happened earlier in the evening with a few other key members that Betty hadn’t met before. He suggested they protect their territory and have members patrolling their turf a few times a day to make their presence known. As for Malachi, the ball was in his court.

Sweet Pea brought up the fact that Jughead shot Malachi on a threat alone tonight before knowing they had already grabbed Betty and could have been bluffing. Jughead hadn’t even thought about the fact that it all could have been a lie to get him riled up. Malachi would probably try to use her against him again if he is dumb enough to try to get to Jughead. Otherwise, everyone in the room seemed to agree that the night, while it was not a total success, was not a failure either. With that, the Serpents were free to celebrate in the bar.

The Serpents filtered out of the conference room back down to the bar. Betty began following Sweet Pea when Jughead grabbed her by the elbow.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He pulled her back to him, making her stumble on her heels.

“To the bar to get a drink,” she said, tiredly. “And to see Toni.”

“Fine, but then I want you to myself,” he told her, twirling a piece of her hair near her face.

“Deal. One drink. A hello to Toni. And then I’m taking off these god-awful shoes for the night,” she laughed.

“Or you could leave them on,” he smirked at her. He brushed her hair back before kissing her and wondered if she noticed him looking for the mark he purposefully left on her collarbone.

He laced is fingers with hers as they entered the bar. Cheers for the Serpent King started as soon has he stepped into the bar. News of the night had already filtered back. The Serpents seemed especially excited about their leader blowing a gasket and shooting Malachi. It wasn’t the smartest thing, but it definitely earned Jughead more street cred with the Serpents.

The Whyte Wyrm was exactly as Betty remembered it: dark, smokey, and full of bikers.

“And what will her Highness be drinking tonight?” Toni asked from behind the bar, batting her eyes at Betty.

Betty reached over and gave her the best hug she could over the bar. Both girls where under 5’8” and being so short made their embrace difficult. “God Toni, your eye looks horrible.”

“Aw shucks, thanks. That’s what I was going for when I got up today,” she joked. “It will be fine in a day or two,” she assured her. “But what are you drinking?”

“Vodka and soda water. Thanks Toni,” she told her as she handed her the drink.

“And what about you, Boss?”

“Whiskey, straight up,” Jug told her. He nodded in her direction as he took the glass.

Betty spotted Joaquin, Kevin, and Veronica over by the pool tables. She gave Jug’s hand a squeeze as she headed in their direction.

“How are you okay right now?” Kevin asked. “Like an hour ago some guy was ready to slit your throat and now you’re drinking something fun and bubbly like nothing happened with barely a mark on your neck, well other than the one you already had,” he snickered.

“I’m fine Kevin,” she told him. “Joaquin took more of a beating than I did.”

Joaquin was holding a bag of ice to his jaw. “I told him we should just go back to my place but he was determined to stay out a little longer,” Kevin told her.

“Veronica, are you okay?” Betty asked.

“Oh. Yeah,” she said. “I mean I haven’t had anything like that happen to use since we were in high-school.”

“I’m sorry that it ruined your night,” Jughead told her.

“It’s fine. Its not like anyone knew that was going to happen. But I texted Archie and he’s on his way to pick me up. I think I would feel much more settled about everything if I was in bed with a sleeping pill.”

Just then, her phone vibrated, and Veronica waved goodbye to everyone, stopping to give Betty a hug. “We are so talking about his later,” she whispered in Betty’s ear.

Betty sipped on her drink while they sat and laughed with Kevin and Joaquin. Jughead and Sweet Pea played pool while Fangs and two other Serpents, Badger and Dutchie, did shots and sang along to the music coming from the speakers. After Jughead sunk his last shot, he said goodnight to the group and intertwined his fingers with Betty’s.

“Don’t let them get too wild tonight, Sweets,” Jughead yelled back. This caused the group of very intoxicated men to cheer loudly and do another shot.

Toni had just delivered a round of drinks that Fangs proudly invented called “Sand in the Crack.”

“What do you think?” Fangs asked Dutchie.

“Tastes like paint thinner and bad decisions.”

“Perfect,” he told him as they both laughed and headed back towards the stage where someone had set up a karaoke machine.

Jughead lead Betty back up to the apartment, offering to carry her up the stairs. She opted to slip her heels off instead and walk. The apartment was smaller than she remembered. She had been here once before when FP had stayed here while they were kids.

She stood inside the door in the living room looking around. There was a kitchen to the left with an island that opened to the living room. A couch was on the wall opposite the kitchen and a TV was mounted on the wall by the front door. Looking back further into the apartment, there were two doors on the back wall. The one on the right went to the bathroom, the one on the left went to the bedroom. There was also a sliding door to the left of the bedroom door that opened up to a small balcony that had two chairs and a small end table between them with an ashtray on it.

Jughead kicked off his boots as Betty went to wrap the throw blanket from the couch around herself before her bare feed carried her into the kitchen. She made herself at home, searching the cabinets and only finding some crackers and getting a glass of water. Jughead stood behind her and nuzzled his face into her neck.

“You’re still frozen,” he said. He wrapped his arms around her tighter.

“That happens when I’m forced to get on a motorcycle wearing sequins and heels,” she told him.

“Then let me make it up to you,” he said, pulling her into the bathroom.


	17. Chapter 17

Jughead turned on the shower and steam started to fill the small bathroom. Betty had jumped up to sit on the sink, pulling Jughead between her legs and wrapping her arms around his neck. He pulled her chin up to him, kissing her softly on the mouth. She sucked and bit on his lower lip while her hands found their way to his chest. Her kisses went from sweet to being more urgent and she sought out his skin. She started undoing the buttons on his shirt, pulling it down over his shoulders while he pulled his arms out of the sleeves. She reached down, undoing his pants and pushing them down with his boxers. They hit the ground in a pool of fabric around his feet.

He lifted her off the sink and set her back down on the floor. He knelt down and slid both hands up under her dress while looking up and making eye contact, feeling all of her curves as he pulled the dress off over her head. Her mouth found his again as she reached behind her back and undid the clasp of her bra. His kisses strayed from her mouth and his lips and moved down her neck to her chest. He held her breast with his hand while kissing and teasing her pink, hard nipples with his tongue. She let out a moan as he teased her with his teeth. A heat started to build in her stomach as he teased her just like she wanted. He hadn’t been with her in years and the sight of her naked body had his heart racing. She slid her thong down to the floor before pulling Jughead into the shower with her.

The water was warm and Jughead held her under it, He had originally hoped to take the chill of the motorcycle ride out of her skin, but this sudden turn to carnal need excited him. He reached for the body wash and poured some into his hands. He began kneading the muscles in her shoulders and back and could swear he could see the tension lift from her body.

He moved lower down her back before reaching around to her front. He moved his hands over her stomach and breasts. She leaned into him, feeling his hard member pressed against her back. Jughead, remembering how she had come undone earlier, slid his hand down between her legs. She spread her legs and opened her folds to make room for his fingers. He used his thumb to tease her clit.

She arched her back as he moved his fingers in tight circles on her. He could hear her breathing quicken and she reached out to put a hand on the wall in front of her to steady herself. He used his leg to spread hers wider and urged one of them up onto the edge of the tub. He stroked her with his fingers, making a “come hither” motion and could feel her walls tightening up on him.

“Jug— keep—-going—-,” she begged him.

He pinched and teased her clit, applying more pressure as she squirmed in his arms. He felt her tighten again and cry out.

“Jug—-,” she said through heavy breaths as she rode the waves of her release.

All of the tension in her body gone again, her knees weak. His toned arms supported her against him, letting the warm water run over her body as she rested her head on his chest.

“That’s twice tonight, Jug,” She reminded him. “What’s the special occasion?”

“I don’t need a special occasion to make you come,” he told her. “And I missed you. I’ve got to make up for lost time.”

She reached up, pushing her fingers through his curls and holding his face to hers. She could feel his hard member twitch against her stomach. He picked her up under her knees and hitched her open legs around his hips. He pressed her against the tile wall of the shower. Moving with him, she lined him up with her center. She kissed his neck and nibbled his ear, letting out a sharp breath as he entered her to the hilt.

He stilled for a moment, letting her stretch around him. He smirked as he heard her hiss when he thrust into her, knowing that no one else had filled her the way that he did. She was hot, wet, and tight. He moved slowly until she started to move against him.

“Fuck—- Jug—— h-harder—-,” she told him.

He accelerated his thrusts, sinking into her each time. He could feel her wet heat spreading to coat her legs.

“I’m—- close—-,” she told him.

“Come for me, Betts,” he urged her.

After two more thrusts, she tightened around his cock, digging her nails into his shoulder.

“Juggie—-,” she yelled.

The sound of her yelling his name made him unravel and he spilled into her. They stood there, riding out their orgasms and breathing heavy. He sunk his forehead to hers, enjoying the feeling of being enveloped by her.

She looked up and kissed him deeply. The water was starting to get cold. He reached over and turned it off, handing her a soft, fluffy towel from the rack and wrapping her in it. He got one for himself and wrapped it around his waist. He dried off, went to the bedroom and came back with one of his gray t-shirts and handed it to Betty. She slipped it on and went back to combing through her hair as he put on flannel pajama pants, checked the locks on the apartment, and got into bed.

He pulled back the comforter for her and she climbed in to the bed between him and the wall. She knew this was where he preferred her. He may not say anything, but he was always thinking about putting her in the safest position. He had almost always tried to stay between her and the door in whatever room they slept in.

She settled into the pillows and rolled over onto her side to face him. He pulled the comforter up higher and pulled her onto his chest. The clock on the dresser read 3 AM. She yawned as he reached over and turned out the light. She moved her legs so that one was draped over his and he held it across him. With all the excitement of the night, Betty was tired.

“Good night, Betts,” he told her, kissing her forehead.

“Good night, Juggie,” she yawned into his chest. His heart skipped a beat hearing her use his nickname only she could get away with. Within minutes, her breathing had evened out and she was asleep.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Jughead went down to the bar in the morning before Betty woke up to assess the damage from the party the night before. Toni had sent him a text around 5 am saying she was finally leaving because Fangs, Badger, and Dutchie had passed out.

The Whyte Wyrm always looks less menacing during the day when light filtered through the smudged windows, but it still wasn’t a place Jughead would ever choose to pass out after a night of drinking. Jughead came down the stairs from the apartment and scanned the room for the three amigos.

Fangs joined the Serpents a year before Jughead had when he was only fourteen. He was from a long line of Serpents who had all served closely to their leader. He was in his early 20s, was tall and lanky with dark spikey hair. He sported some impressive throat ink and had a more impressive left hook. Fangs had come through for Jughead time and time again. He normally ran with Badger and Dutchie and the three had a reputation of being the ringleaders for most of the wild parties and Serpent shenanigans these days.

He spotted Fangs and Dutchie at a booth in the corner. Fangs was curled up on the table top and Dutchie was hanging out of the booth with his head on the floor. Jughead cleared his throat, waking Fangs and Dutchie up from their slumber.

“Mornin’ Boss!” Dutchie announced, rubbing his eyes and falling off the booth and kicking the table above him, which woke up Fangs. “Don’t mind us, just getting an early start on the day.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jughead rolled his eyes. He continued to look around the bar. “Where the hell is Badger?”

At the sound of his name, Badger popped up from inside a speaker box onstage with a shit eating grin on his face.

“Reporting for duty!” He saluted Jughead with half shut eyes.

Jughead looked him up and down. Badger was a scruffy guy in his early twenties. He was about 5’10” with a haircut that looked like a mullet got in a fight with a weed whacker. He was wearing dark pants tucked into leather boots and had a hanker-chief hanging out of his back pocket. His shirt was no where to be seen and his torso was covered in bright colors.

“Why are you covered in neon body paint?” Jughead asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Better if you didn’t know,” Badger replied.

“Fair enough,” Jughead told him. Jughead decided it might be entertaining to go through the security footage of the bar from last night.

“Are any of you sober?” Jughead asked the motley trio.

They looked around at each other. “I’m moderately functional,” Fangs told him through hiccups.

“So, I’m gonna take that as a no,” Jughead confirmed. “You guys know the rules. You passed out down here so now you’ve got to clean all this up.” Jughead waved to the shot glasses and Red Bull cans littering the bar area as well as what he can only assume was Badger’s body paint artwork on the wall by the stage.

——————————————————————————————————————-

It had been a week since Jughead had increased Serpent patrol through their turf. There had been no sign of the Ghoulies. Through the grapevine, Jughead had gotten word that Malachi had started looking at properties in Greendale to expand into. He sent word to the Serpents chapter in Greendale to give them a heads up and get them up to speed. The amount of new shifty characters sneaking around in the shadows of Greendale hadn’t gone unnoticed.

Jughead realized he couldn’t keep Betty locked up in the apartment at the Wyrm, even though he would have if he could. It did give her some time to catch up with Toni during her shifts at the bar. Not wanting to leave Betty without some sort of security, and realizing she was going stir crazy between being in the apartment and downstairs at the Wyrm, he went with her to Archie’s gym on Monday. Archie and Jughead talked in the office while she ran on the treadmill. Archie was not happy about what happened at Hysteria over the weekend, but realized Jughead hadn’t planned on Betty or Veronica to be present when hell broke loose with the Ghoulies.

“I’m just glad the girls got out okay,” Archie told Jughead. “You sure Betty was okay afterwards? Like mentally?”

“I think so,” Jughead told him, but he really wasn’t not sure where her head was at. She had just lost her mother and had taken on the stress of the end of life decisions. He also knew that she was worried about stuff back in Boston, but he wasn’t sure what all of that entailed. He was afraid that being thrown back into the Serpent life that she had given up years ago may be adding on more stress. He had never meant for that to happen. Hell, she left him over it last time.

“Just talk to her, man,” Archie urged him. “You know how she is when she gets stuck in her head.”

“You’re right,” Jughead told him. There was a long silence. Jughead was entranced with his thoughts and insecurities as he stared out to where Betty was running on the treadmill. The sound of someone dropping weights in the gym snapped him back to reality. “Hey did you and Veronica find a place yet?”

“We are still looking,” Archie told him. “You know how Veronica is. I was surprised she had agreed to the apartment we were in last year because of how close it is to Southside and because it didn’t come with a doorman.”

“How is Smithers these days?” Jughead joked.

“Oh she tried to hire him,” Archie told her. “The landlord and Veronica got into it. I heard about it every night for a month. Smithers retired to Florida though. We got a Christmas card from him.”

Jughead looked out the office window to where Betty had cranked up the incline on her machine.

“I was thinking I may start looking for a place,” Jughead told Archie.

Archie looked questioningly at his friend. “For you?”

“And Betty.” Jughead had known what he was asking, but he was nervous when it came to him and Betty. So much was still up in the air and they were leading very different lives.

“Is she staying?”

“We haven’t talked about it yet. I know she checked in with her boss this morning, and got the okay to stay a little longer,” Jughead told his friend.

“You don’t think you’re rushing things?” Archie asked, concerned for his friend.

“I don’t know,” Jughead said looking down at the ground and then back at Betty. “Maybe I am. I just got her back though and I don’t want to go back to being alone,” he said in a hushed voice.

“I get it,” Archie told him. “She turns you into a better version of yourself. But don’t make any rash decisions without talking to her. If I’ve learned anything from being with Veronica, you guys need to talk about this kind of stuff, as a team.”

“When did you get to be so insightful, Andrews?” Jughead joked.


	18. Chapter 18

“Disciples reached out,” Sweet Pea told Jughead, slapping the bar and smiling. Jughead was sitting at the bar drinking coffee and going over the Wyrm’s finances while Toni was putting clean glasses away. The club needed to start bringing in some more money soon.

Betty was sitting in a corner booth with Fangs, Badger and Dutchie, helping them get enrolled in their next semester of classes at the Riverdale Community College. Fangs had decided to major in criminal justice and Badger was proudly on a women’s studies course. It was pretty much assumed that Badger hadn’t understood what he was going to be learning about when he signed up. Dutchie was studying botany as he was the resident “herbalist” in the Serpents and was encouraged to put his green thumb to use.

Betty sat between them eagerly explaining the classes they were looking at and going over schedules. In second grade she had taken it on herself to tutor Archie when she had found out he may not be able to go onto third grade with her and Jughead. She was always very academic. It may have been the sunlight coming in through the dirty windows, but it seemed like she put off this glow that made everyone around her want to be better people.

“And?” He asked, not looking up from his computer.

“They want to put in another order. A much bigger order. Glocks and 30/06’s.”

“When?”

“Saturday,” Sweet Pea informed him.

“That’s a fast turn around,” he stated. He looked over to where Betty was sitting, knowing this is another job he would need to keep from her. “And they are good with the price we had before?”

“Yes. They said they will pay an extra five grand if we deliver,” Sweet Pea said.

Jughead thought it over for a minute. The Serpents hadn’t been able to get the guns the Disciples had wanted last time and were forced to supply them with their second choice. He was worried that would mean they wouldn’t be customers anymore, but apparently they were still willing to buy. This was good as it was a good chunk of money that could go back into the Serpent operating funds. Most of the Serpents worked at Serpent owned businesses, but they made the same amount at those jobs as they would if they weren’t members. Jughead hated that some of the longtime members were barely surviving on minimum wage.

“Go ahead and get it set up. See if the prospect wants to make some money driving the truck,” Jughead told his second in command. If Joaquin was willing to drive the truck, Jughead was willing to throw some extra cash his way from this deal.

“Will do, Boss,” Sweet Pea told him as walked back towards the conference room and started making calls.

Jughead began to think about how this would play out. It would be a full days ride to Disciples territory. When they had done this before, they would crash at a motel off the old highway and then deliver the product in the morning, stay again overnight to visit the Seaside Serpent chapter in the area and then make the drive home the next morning. He would be gone three days.

So far, the Ghoulies had been quiet since their conversation at Hysteria went to shit. They seemed to be focusing on their Greendale prospects for the time being and leaving the Serpents alone. He didn’t trust that they wouldn’t retaliate, but as far as he knew from his sources, Malachi was holed up somewhere over in Greendale.

“You ready to go?” Betty asked, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

“Yeah,” he told her. Still thinking about everything that needed to happen before tomorrow morning. “Can you run up and grab my backpack?” He asked, handing her the keys to the apartment.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Jug turned to Toni who was handing a Bud Light to an older serpent at the other end of the bar.

“Hey, I’m gonna have to head out for a few days tomorrow to run this deal with Sweet Pea and a few others. I need you to keep your ear to the ground for me, make sure Ghoulies don’t start acting up as soon as we roll out,” he told her. “And check on Betty for me would you? But don’t, like, tell her. I don’t want her to feel like she has a babysitter.”

She winked at him, “I got it, Jug.”

———————————————————————————————————————

FP had taken Jelly Bean to the mall to pick out some back to school clothes and Jughead and Betty had the house to themselves when they got home.

“Hungry?” Betty asked.

“Constantly,” he told her.

“Fried chicken?”

“Have I told you how happy I am that you’re home _and_ cooking?” Jughead asked. Alice had passed on her kitchen talents to her daughter. Other than seeing Betty everyday, Jughead loved that moving in with the Coopers as a teen had meant he was getting more home cooked meals than he ever had before. Growing up, FP’s specialty had always been boiled hot dogs and ramen noodles.

Betty started making dinner and Jughead opened a bag of chips and a beer while he watched her. He wanted to memorize all her movements. She made something as simple as making dinner look like a ballet.

“What are you thinking about?” She asked him. “You’re drooling.”

“You,” he told her.

“Is that so?”

“And me,” he replied, his head resting on his forearm propped up on the counter. “I think we should get a place.”

She stopped tossing the chicken in the batter. “That’s a big step, Jug.”

“We already live together here,” he told her. “We’ve been living together since we were fifteen. Its not such a huge jump.”

“I have an apartment in Boston, Jug. Hell, I have a life in Boston,” she told him. His face dropped. “I can’t just up and move. I have plants Jug. Plants!” She told him as he started laughing. “I would have to find a job too. No one is going to want to rent to us with neither of us having a legitimate income, or in my case, any income.”

“I have a legitimate income,” he told her proudly. “You are looking at the owner of the Whyte Wyrm. But you’re right. I see what you’re saying.”

She went back to cooking. “This trip back has been great, Jug. Much better than I had hoped for under the circumstances.”

“But?” He asked. He could hear a “but” coming.

“But this thing between you and I caught me off guard. I wasn’t planning on any of this. I’m still getting use to it.”

Jughead looked more defeated than when he started the conversation. Betty wiped her hands off on the kitchen towel she had on her shoulder. She walked around the island so she could take his face in her hands.

“It’s great, Jug,” she assured him before kissing him lightly on the lips. “I’m happy. And I think you are too.”

“Of course I am,” he told her, pulling her into a tight embrace.

“I’m not on any sort of timeline,” she told him. “I like being with you.”

Betty stepped back towards her cooking. Jughead reached out and gave her a quick smack on the ass.

“I think its obvious I like being with you too,” he said, shifting his eyes down to his now tumescent member and wiggling his eyebrows at her. She rolled her eyes at him.

“So… I was thinking I would go with JB and get some of her school supplies and maybe get her a few more girlie things while FP is at work tomorrow. I have this weird feeling she’s going to come back with carpenter pants and flannel shirts tonight. What do you have going on tomorrow?,” she asked.

“What’s wrong with flannel shirts? Actually, I needed to talk to you about that,” he told her. He started rubbing the back of his neck. “I have to go out of town for a few days. Serpent stuff. But I should be back Sunday night.”

“When do you leave?”

“About 7 tomorrow morning.”

“Should I be worried?” She asked. She knew she didn’t want all the details, knowing it was best to know as little as possible if she could.

“This is all pretty straightforward. Its nothing I haven’t done a hundred times before,” he assured her. She then began to think about what the hell he could have done a hundred times before. Her imagination was going to get the best of her.

“Is Sweets going with you?”

“Yes, and a few of the other guys. I think Joaquin may go too but Toni will be here,” he told her. “You can call or text me whenever you want to while I’m gone. If anything happens, call me. I don’t care what time it is.”

“You mean if the Ghoulies happen?” She asked.

“Yes,” he told her. “Or anything. I don’t like being this far away from you with all this shit going on.”

“I’ll be fine, Jug,” she assured him.

———————————————————————————————————————

Just as Betty expected, FP and Jelly Bean came home with a bag full of baggy jeans and oversized flannel shirts. JB looked less than thrilled with the purchases. She pulled the shirts out of the bag to show Betty and her brother.

“Hey, I have that same one,” Jughead told her. JB rolled her eyes and shoved it back in the bag. Betty waited until FP was out of earshot to tell her she would take her back to the mall in the morning.

Jughead and FP were sitting in the living room quietly discussing Jughead’s upcoming trip in the morning while Betty finished cleaning up from dinner.

“We will be fine here, son,” FP told him. “Just keep me updated when you can.”

Betty excused herself to go up and get ready for bed.

“I’ll be up there in a minute,” Jughead told her. Jughead was so much like his father and she almost felt like she was intruding on something personal when she had walked through the living room.

Betty didn’t have a bathtub in her apartment in Boston and she decided she had been wasting the opportunity to use the one in her childhood bathroom. So she started the water, picked a playlist, pulled her hair up in a bun on top of her head, and settled into the tub letting the water flow over her. About ten minutes later, she opened her eyes when she heard the bathroom door crack.

“Well, hello Betty Cooper,” Jughead said, beaming from the doorway. “Room for one more?”

She looked at the tub. It was jut a normal tub. She fit just fine but there was no way his 6’2 frame was going to be comfortable. “Not really, but get in.”

He stripped his clothes off and stepped into the tub behind Betty. She leaned back into his chest.

“You weren’t kidding about there not being enough room,” he told her, sticking one leg up on the tile wall and the other tucked under her.

“I told you,” she laughed.

“They make it look so romantic in the movies,” he said, with a confused look on his face. “So what, no bubbles?”

“We didn’t have any. There a bath bomb thing though if you want me to toss that in here,” she offered.

“I need that spa experience, Betts,” he joked. “Drop the bomb!”

She reached over to the basket on top of the toilet and retrieved the bath bomb she assumed her mother had bought at some point and left in the various bathrooms in the house. She dropped it into the tub and it began to fizz and dissolve.

“It smells nice, but its not bubbles,” he told her.

“I’ll keep that in mind the next time I’m at the store,” she assured him. She smiled thinking about the idea of needing to buy bubble bath for a gang leader.

They relaxed in the tub for another ten minutes before Betty announced she was turning into a prune and was ready to get into bed since they had an early morning. She got out of the tub, leaving Jughead to soak for a few more minutes.

“Got any more of those bombs in there?” He asked pointing to the basket on top of the toilet tank.

Betty tossed one more in the tub before she left him in the bathroom. She could hear his “oohs and ahhs” from the bathroom while she toweled off and put on her pajamas. He was an enigma. Tough gang leader who shoots people in a rage and also enjoys bubble baths and sleeping in a princess bed. She smiled at the thought as she climbed into bed and started reading a book.

Jughead came out of the bathroom with his towel wrapped around himself.

“Betts, we have a problem,” he said seriously.

She looked up from her book to see what he was talking about.

“Are you… sparkling?” She asked as she squinted at him in the dim light. “Oh. My. God.”

Betty started laughing and couldn’t stop. He stood there in his towel, inspecting himself in the mirror in horror. She was laughing so hard tears were starting to fall. She was just imagining him on his bike tomorrow, riding down the highway, sparkling in the sun. Jelly Bean could hear Bettys infectious laugh and burst into the room.

“What’s going on?” She asked before looking at her brother. “Wow, Jug, that’s a different look for you,” she said through giggles.

“Why am I glittery?!” He asked looking between both his sister and Betty.

“You used those bath bombs Alice put in the bathrooms, didn’t you?” Jelly Bean asked.

“Yeah, we didn’t have bubbles,” he told her.

“Alice got me some of those for Christmas last year. The normal ones are okay but the glitter ones I had to try to give away because they made me look like a disco ball.”

“Oh and you just so happened to decide to put them in our bathroom?”

“No, Alice did when I told her I wouldn’t use them. I didn’t know you even took baths! I just thought they would sit there on the back of the toilet. Kind of like those seashell soaps the old lady next door use to keep in her bathroom that none of us were aloud to use.”

“I’m taking a shower,” he said, stomping back into the bathroom.

“That’s amazing,” Jelly Bean said, pointing towards the sparkly Serpent King before leaving and going back to her room.

“Jug, you need anything in there?” Betty asked.

“A brillo pad,” he grumbled.


	19. Chapter 19

Morning came too soon for Jughead. He grabbed a few things he would need for the weekend and packed them into the bag on his bike. Betty had already been awake when he had gotten up. She had made him breakfast and coffee. _This woman is perfect,_ he thought to himself.

She walked him outside and kissed him deeply, holding something behind her back.

“What are you hiding, Cooper,” he asked her. Wrapping his arms around her.

“I packed you some snacks,” she smiled and handed over a brown paper bag.

“Only you, Betty,” he laughed as he leaned in and kissed her again. “I’ll be back Sunday night. I’ll text you when I get in tonight, but call me if you need me, okay?”

“I promise,” she told him. She gave him one more quick peck. “Be safe.”

“Wild and reckless,” he teased her.

Jughead started the engine and set off towards the Whyte Wyrm. She couldn’t be sure if she imagined it or not, but she thought she may have seen him glittering in the morning sun just a little. Betty retreated back to the house to clean up the mess she had made in the kitchen this morning. Her phone buzzed.

**_Veronica:_ ** _Please tell me we are hanging out today. I need a break from Archie and house hunting._

**_Betty:_ ** _I was going to take JB shopping for some girly school clothes. Maybe get a manicure. Make a day of it._

**_Veronica:_ ** _Perfect! I love a good make-over. I’m coming with!_

**_Betty:_ ** _We will pick you up at 10._

Betty finished cleaning up the kitchen and decided to go ahead and do a quick sweep through the house. FP was great, but he was not known to do a lot of cleaning. By the time Jelly Bean had woken up, Betty had swept and mopped the kitchen, done the dishes, started a load of laundry, and picked up the living room. _Better than nothing,_ she told herself.

Her phone buzzed again.

**_Jug:_ ** _I miss you already._

**_Betty:_ ** _I miss you too._

Betty stopped at the drive through coffee stand on the way to Veronicas and got coffee for the three of them. Veronica met them at the entrance of her apartment complex, dressed to the nines as usual.

“Good morning ladies!” She announced as she climbed into the backseat of the black SUV. “I love good retail therapy.”

“FP took JB shopping last night,” Betty told Veronica. “But I think she might want to get a few more pieces that are a little more her style.”

“I don’t want to hurt his feelings,” Jelly Bean told them. “But its my senior year and I don’t want to have to dress like a forty year old biker EVERY day this year.”

“Girl, we are here to help,” Veronica assured her. “You will be feeling flawless by the end of the day. This is my specialty. Now tell me about your style…”

_———————————————————————————————————————————_

The three shopped the morning away. Veronica filled Jelly Bean’s dressing room with all sorts of outfits in every color and style she could think of.

Jelly Bean came out of the dressing room wearing a crop top, mini skirt, and thigh high boots. Betty shook her head.

“That’s a little too Pretty Woman,” Betty told her.

“We just really need to figure out the story we are trying to tell with the clothes,” Veronica said to no one in general.

“I think we need to find something that is function and she’s comfortable in,” Betty told her.

Jelly Bean’s next outfit was a red velvet spaghetti strap dress over a short sleeved see through blouse, paired with black combat boots.

“I kind of like this,” Jelly Bean told them.

It reminded Betty of what teens would have worn in movies made in the 90s and really didn’t mind it at all. It was kind of pretty with a little punk rock to it, just like Jelly Bean. Betty looked at the tag on the pieces before sending her back into the dressing room. Together, the dress, shirt, and boots were going to cost $250.

“Of course she likes the most expensive things you put in there,” Betty told Veronica in a hushed voice. “I’m still paying bills in Boston and have zero money coming in right now.”

“I feel like you’re trying to stop me from executing my vision,” Veronica told her.

“Your vision is expensive.”

Veronica waved her off. “Then let me pay for that outfit and you pick something else. My treat.”

Jelly Bean was able to find two more pairs of pants, a skirt, a few tops, and the outfit that Veronica had offered to buy. Next, the trio went to get mani-pedis. Veronica enjoyed a mimosa while Jelly Bean sipped on a soda. Jelly Bean retold how sparkly Jughead was after his bath last night and Veronica started to laugh so hard that she snorted.

“Wait,” Veronica stopped. “Was he still sparkling this morning when he left?”

“A little,” Betty giggled. “He tried to hard to get it all off but I think he just sort of spread it around more.”

The three finished with their mani-pedis and Betty dropped Jelly Bean off at the movies with her friends and a very cute boy in a letterman’s jacket.

“Call me if you need a ride later,” she told her as she tried to get a better look at the boy.

Betty and Veronica went back to Veronica’s apartment to continue their girls day.

“I feel like we should have invited Kevin,” Veronica said. “But I think he was working this weekend. Something about a big story on back to school shopping.” Kevin worked on the film crew for the news station in Greendale.

“How is the house hunting going?” Betty asked, while opening a bottle of wine and pouring a glass for both of them. Veronica was lounging on the sofa and had turned on a reality TV show for background noise.

“I just haven’t found anything I love,” she said dramatically. “The houses that have what I want aren’t _where_ I want and vice versa.”

“I’m sure you will find something, it might just take time,” Betty assured her.

“I just don’t know why we can’t find something reasonably priced with four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a two car garage, big walk in closet, wine cellar, and in ground pool near the ocean,” Veronica laughed.

“Well it certainly doesn’t sound like you sets your sights too high, especially the beach front property in the middle of the forests of Riverdale,” Betty smiled sweetly back at her friend.

“What about you, Betty,” Veronica asked.

“Actually, Jug suggested last night that we get a place,” she told her. “I’m afraid I got nervous and hurt his feelings a little. I told him I didn’t want to move too fast.”

“You guys have acted like an old married couple since before we could drive. I don’t feel like getting your own place isn’t a totally absurd idea,” Veronica told her. “So you’re staying in Riverdale then?”

“I still haven’t made up my mind,” Betty said. “But you were right, there is nothing keeping me in Boston.”

“So do it,” Veronica urged her. “Taking that first step is the scariest but I promise it will work out.”

“I need to find a job. I don’t want to rely on Jug for money. I like being independent and I honestly don’t want to know where some of his income comes from,” she told her.

Veronica got up and ran to her bedroom and came back with her laptop. “Okay, then lets do this,” she told her.

“What?” Betty asked.

“Finding you a job,” Veronica said. “You work in an emergency department right?” She asked scrolling through a website. Betty shook her head “yes.”

“Done. Found one at Riverdale Memorial. What’s PRN?” Veronica asked.

“It means as needed. You aren’t full time or part time. You just work when they need you.”

“That is better than nothing. And its a good way to see if you like the hospital. This could get your foot in the door in case you want to try to be full time later on,” Veronica told her.

“You have a point.”

“Well duh,” Veronica rolled her eyes at her. “Ok, here, fill out the application,” she told her as she handed her the laptop. Betty took the laptop from her friend and started plugging her information in. Veronica was right, she needed to rip off the bandaid and just make a decision. She had been here for weeks and the thought of going back to the city made her heart sink. She hadn’t wanted to talk to Jughead about it too much because she was still embarrassed at how unhappy she was with ever moving away and she wasn’t ready to admit it to him yet.

Veronica continued to scroll on her phone. “Did you have plans for tomorrow or Sunday?”

“Huh? Oh, not really,” she told her, half paying attention. “Jug gets home Sunday night.”

“Okay, good, you’ll be home by Sunday night then.”

Betty looked up. “What are you talking about?”

“I just booked your flights to and from Boston. You leave in the morning tomorrow and you get back Sunday morning. That gives you a day to pack up whatever you need, tell your landlord you’re moving out, and clean out your locker at work. You’ll be home before Jug gets back.”

“I don’t know, V. He was nervous about me being here alone all weekend because of the stuff with the Ghoulies,” she told her.

“That’s more reason to go! You’ll be hours away from the Ghoulies!” Veronica reasoned with her. “Think about how happy Jug will be when you tell him you’re here to stay.”

Betty did like that idea. She hated how sad he looked when they talked last night at dinner. Maybe it was the wine talking or maybe she realized she was ready to fall back into her life here, but she told Veronica, “What time do I leave?”

———————————————————————————————————————

“My ass hurts,” Sweet Pea announced as the serpents got off their bikes. They had pulled into the Moonlight Motel just as the sun started to go down. “I’ll go get the rooms,” he told Jughead as he walked towards the Motel Office and simultaneously rubbed his ass.

“Jughead motioned for the Serpents to park around the back of the building. Joaquin was driving the box truck carrying the firearms in crates. They were hidden amongst crates of car parts from the Serpent owned garage. He parked the truck behind the building with the other Serpent bikes.

Sweet Pea tossed keys out to the guys. Two men to a room, not that they hadn’t all piled into one tiny room the first time they made this trip. The Moonlight Motel was built in the 70s and hadn’t been updated since then. Jughead opened the door to the room he and Sweet Pea were sharing. He tossed himself down on the twin bed closest to the door and pulled out his phone.

**_Betts:_ ** _Just thinking about you. How was your ride?_

**_Jug:_ ** _We just got in. My ass is numb._

**_Betts:_ ** _Don’t tell Joaquin._

**_Betts:_ ** _JK_

**_Jug:_ ** _I would much rather be at home with you than laying on a twin bed in a dirty old motel._

**_Betts:_ ** _Really? A bed all to yourself? That sounds great._

**_Jug:_ ** _Aren’t you sassy tonight?_

**_Betts:_ ** _Oh its not me, its the wine._

**_Jug:_ ** _So you waited until I was out of town to become a lush?_

**_Betts:_ ** _No, I took JB shopping and Veronica came along. I dropped JB off with her friends and some cute kid in a letterman jacket at the movies. Veronica and I went back to her place to continue our girls day._

**_Jug:_ ** _She didn’t dress JB up like a hooker did she?_

**_Betts:_ ** _No, but I did have to nix a few crop tops and some skirts that were a little too short._

**_Jug:_ ** _You use to wear crop tops and short skirts at her age._

**_Betts:_ ** _And remember the things we use to do when I wore those?_

**_Jug:_ ** _Shit. Good point. Keep her covered._

**_Betts:_ ** _I made her reign it in._

**_Betts:_ ** _I miss you._

**_Betts:_ ** _Juggie?_

**_Jug:_ ** _Sorry, Sweet Pea was getting our pizza orders and I had to remind Dutchie we were not going to be swimming in the pool._

**_Betts:_ ** _A pool? And twin beds? You guys are living large._

**_Jug:_ ** _The water is definitely green and slimy._

**_Jug:_ ** _What are you doing tomorrow?_

**_Betts:_ ** _Just running some errands._

**_Jug:_ ** _Then what are you doing tonight?_

**_Betts:_ ** _I’m just laying in bed, watching Netflix. Finishing off this bottle of wine._

**_Jug:_ ** _Did you steal the rest of Ronnie’s wine from her?_

**_Betts:_ ** _I prefer to call it a to-go bottle. :)_

At that moment, Betty decided to take a selfie and send it. She was wearing a sheer white tank top and shorts. She pulled her knees up to her chest, making her cleavage look bigger, and held the camera out to get a picture of herself blowing him a kiss.

**_Jug:_ ** _Holy hell, Betts. You’re gonna make it hard for me to want to stay and finish this job._

**_Betts:_ ** _I know you had to go, but I wish you were here._

**_Jug:_ ** _What would you be doing if I was there?_

**_Betts:_ ** _I would definitely be wearing less clothes._

**_Jug:_ ** _I would help you take them off. I bet your panties would be soaked._

**_Betts:_ ** _Mmmhmmm. I would push your head down between my legs and make you taste me._

**_Jug:_ ** _I would lick up your juices and tease you with my tongue._

**_Betts:_ ** _I would squirm as you fucked me with your fingers._

**_Jug:_ ** _Fuck, Betts, its going to be really hard for me to share a room with Sweet Pea tonight._

**_Betts:_ ** _Then maybe you should go to the bathroom, take out your hard cock, and stroke it._

This was a new side of Betty he hadn’t seen. He liked her talking dirty. Betty took another photo. This time standing in front of the mirror. She had taken off her shorts and turned so that her ass peeked out from under her very sheer tank top. She hit send.

**_Betts:_ ** _This should help._

**_Jug:_ ** _Oh it will, Betts.I’m going to go take care of this right now. Goodnight love._

Betty put her shorts back on and packed an overnight bag. Veronica was going to pick her up at eight in the morning and drop her off at the airport. Her plan was to go and pack up the few things she still had in the apartment and donate the rest. Before she went back to the airport, she was going to swing by the hospital and clean out her locker. Then she would be back on a plane and back in Riverdale before Jughead got home from his trip. As much as he hated surprises, she was sure this would be one he would enjoy.

Veronica had helped her write a very professional sounding email to her boss resigning from her position and explaining she would be back tomorrow afternoon to turn in her badge. Betty sent a text to her landlord too, telling him she would be there to clean out the apartment tomorrow and would leave the key under the mat for him.

Everything was set up. It was like as soon as she had made the decision to move back to Riverdale, everything started to snowball and fall easily into place. For the first time, she was actually excited to go back to Boston, even if it was only so that she could come back to Riverdale.


	20. Chapter 20

Betty was up early on Saturday. She said goodbye to FP, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and headed out the door. Veronica picked her up from the house and drove her to the airport.

“I’ll pick you up at 6 am tomorrow. Text me if you need anything,” Veronica told her.

Within thirty minutes, Betty was waiting in line at her terminal, ready to get to Boston so she could say goodbye to it. She sipped her coffee and scrolled through her phone until they called her boarding number. She found her seat, pulled out her book, and turned off her phone, ready for the quick trip to the big city.

———————————————————————————————————————

The Serpents made the drop mid morning. It went as planned without any issues, which Jughead was thankful for since the last time they had done business it had not gone as smoothly.The Serpents spent the rest of the day hanging out at the Seaside chapter’s clubhouse. Jughead had texted Betty to say good morning before they had met with the Disciples but hadn’t heard back. _She’s probably still asleep after that bottle of wine last night,_ he told himself.

He checked his phone again and she still hadn’t responded. She didn’t normally sleep in this late. He sent her another message telling her to call him when she got his text. His imagination started to run wild and he began to get worried about her.

**_Boss:_ ** _Have you seen Betty?_

**_Toni:_ ** _No, she texted saying she was spending the day with that hottie Veronica yesterday. I haven’t seen her today though._

**_Boss:_ ** _Thanks._

His mind started to race, thinking up every bad situation she could possibly be in. She could have been in a wreck, or maybe she went for a run and was abducted. What if the Ghoulies abducted her? He shook the thoughts from his mind. _You’re being paranoid,_ he told himself.

**_Jughead:_ ** _Hey is Betty there?_

**_FP:_ ** _No she left a few hours ago._

**_Jughead:_ ** _Any idea where she was going?_

**_FP:_ ** _I didn’t ask. She had a backpack with her and Veronica picked her up I think._

**_Jughead:_ ** _Thanks pops._

He knew he was probably overreacting, but he picked up the phone and called Veronica. It went straight to voicemail. He had never seen her phone not attached to her hand. Why was it going to voicemail?

**_Jug:_ ** _Betts, I’m worried about you. Where are you?_

He sat there, looking at at the screen. It said “delivered.” He kept waiting for the read receipt to appear.

“You okay Jug?” Sweet Pea asked, bringing another beer over to Jughead who was sitting on a couch in the Seaside clubhouse.

“Yeah,” he told him, not paying attention. “Wait. No. I can’t get ahold of Betty. FP said she left with a backpack this morning with Veronica. But I can’t get ahold of Veronica either.”

“Do you want me to see if Ace and Badger can roll out and see if they can get eyes on her?”

“Yeah, tell them to report back to me if they find her,” Jughead told Sweet Pea before he went back to staring at his phone.

**_Jug:_ ** _I’m starting to spiral here, Betts. I need to know you’re okay._

Joaquin was sitting with Fangs and a few of the Seaside Serpents nearby. Jughead called him over.

“Have you talked to Kevin today?”

“Yeah this morning, why? Whats up?” Joaquin asked.

“I’m trying to track down Betty. I was hoping maybe they were together.”

“Kevin is over in Greendale finishing up filming a news story this weekend. Any idea who she was with?”

“FP said she left with Veronica this morning but I can’t get through to her either.”

“Have you called Archie? He might know.”

“Good idea. Thanks.”

Jughead got up and walked outside into the early afternoon heat and dialed Archie’s number. He picked up on the first ring.

“Hey man, whats up?” Archie asked.

“Arch, have you seen Veronica? I’ve been trying to get ahold of Betty and I haven’t been able to get through to her.”

“Oh yeah man. Ronnie said she was dropping B off at the airport this morning.”

“The airport?”

“Yeah they had come up with some plan for her to go to Boston.”

“Is Veronica with her?”

“No she’s at the spa getting a massage.”

Jughead hung up. Everything around him seemed to start spinning. She left him. Again. He could feel his chest ripping in half as his stomach tightened in knots. He could not lose her again. It wasn’t an option this time.

He marched back in and waved down Sweet Pea.

“I’ve got to go, can you handle this and get everyone back in the morning?”

“Yeah, Jug,” he told him. “Are you good to ride? You look like hell.”

“I’ll be worse if I don’t get back right now.”

“Understood. Ride safe.”

Jughead got on his bike and took off with a cloud of dust back towards Riverdale.

———————————————————————————————————————

Betty’s plane landed and she was ready to get to work so she could get back home. She turned her phone back on and saw three missed calls from Jughead along with a few texts saying he was worried about her and he was spiraling. She hailed a cab and dialed his number after she was in the backseat and headed towards her apartment. The phone rang over and over until his voicemail picked up. _Its Jug, leave a message. (Beep)_

“Juggie, its Betts. I’m fine. I’m sorry my phone was off. Call me back.”

She wasn’t sure what was going on during this deal and didn’t want to be too needy in case he was in the middle of something he couldn’t be interrupted with. Still, she didn’t like the idea of him worrying. She sent him a text.

**_Betts:_ ** _Jug, I’m okay. My phone was off. Don’t spiral. We are good. I miss you. Call me when you can._

She got to the apartment and started tossing things to donate into garbage bags. She almost laughed when she looked at her plants on the windowsill in the kitchen. They were brown and shriveled. Her neighbor hadn’t watered them at all. She threw them in the trashcan.

Betty was able to pack up everything in the living room/ bedroom in under an hour. She called the local Salvation Army and they agreed to come in the next few hours to pick up her furniture. That gave her time to go over to the hospital, turn in her badge and clean out her locker. She hailed a cab and walked into the Emergency Department by mid-afternoon. She cleaned out her locker, said goodbye to a few of her friends, and turned in her badge. Her phone buzzed.

**_Toni:_ ** _Hey you good? Jug was looking for you this morning._

**_Betty:_ ** _Yeah I’m fine. My phone was just off. I called him back and left a message but I haven’t heard back yet._

**_Toni:_ ** _He probably just can’t answer the phone right now. I wouldn’t worry. But I just wanted to check on you._

**_Betty:_ ** _Thanks Toni. I appreciate it._

She was waiting for a cab when she heard footsteps behind her.

“Hey! Betty!” She turned around to see Nick jogging behind her and waving. Everything about his smug face made Betty question why she had ever given him the time of day.

“Oh, hey Nick. I was just heading out.”

“Where have you been? I haven’t seen you in weeks and what? You didn’t see that I’ve been calling you? That’s not cool Betty.”

“I had some family stuff come up and I had to go home,” she told him, hoping the cab would get here quick. She had seen his almost daily phone calls but had rejected every single one of them. He was a pompous asshat and she didn’t feel he deserved any sort of update on her whereabouts. “I’ve been really busy, sorry.”

“I heard you quit. What is up with you?”

“I did. I’m moving back home.”

“You didn’t think that would be something you should tell me? I’m your boyfriend Betty,” he told her, looking more and more angry and balling his fists up at his sides and breathing heavily. She looked at him with wide eyes. Everything about his current appearance was ape-like. This might be the most interesting conversation they had ever had.

“My boyfriend?” She laughed. “We went out every once and a while but we were definitely not dating.” She could see his face begin to get red and flush to his ears. He always made her feel like she should be lucky to be able to be around him, but really it had been the other way around.

“What the hell is that?” He pulled at the collar of her shirt to expose a cluster of marks in various stages of bruising that Jug had placed on her with his mouth during their lovemaking sessions. “You whoring yourself out all over the place then?”

“I can sleep with who ever I want. You and I weren’t ever together,” she snapped at him. She could see the cab pulling up to the curb. “You meant nothing to me. I was bored and you were something to entertain myself with. But honestly, since I got home I’ve been too busy in bed with by ex to even remember you exist. Piss off Nick.”

Betty got in the cab. “You fucking bitch! You’ll pay for that! I was fucking Karen in admitting this whole time anyways!” He yelled as she pulled away from the curb. She smiled to herself. _Not very likely, Nick._ Telling him off felt good. She had never actually liked him. She tolerated him in very small increments. He always wanted to call the shots. He was just horrible.

Betty got back to the apartment about thirty minutes before the Salvation Army was suppose to arrive. She decided to order some Chinese food, realizing she hadn’t really eaten yet today. She didn’t have much else to pack up but she wanted to have the rest of the donation bags ready for when the movers came. She started throwing her towels, rug, and shower curtain into the donation bag.

Next up was the kitchen. She opened all the drawers, dumping her plastic dishes and cheap silverware into the donation bags. Then she took all of the nonperishable foods and put them in a box and dropped them off at her neighbors door. She was cleaning out the fridge when there was a knock at the door. She was greeted by the same Chinese delivery boy that had been bringing her cheese wontons and spicy chicken for the last few years. She paid him in cash and dug into her food. She watched traffic passing by out the one window in the tiny apartment.

It wasn’t long until she saw the Salvation Army van show up. She was happy she wasn’t going to have to move the furniture again. Moving was one of her absolute least favorite things in the whole world. She didn’t envy the jobs these young kids that worked for the Salvation Army had. Within the next hour, her apartment was empty aside from a now full duffle bag she had brought in her backpack and the Chinese delivery she was still picking at.

**_Betty:_ ** _Apartment is empty, locker is cleaned out, badge is turned in, and I got in a yelling match with Nick on the sidewalk in front of the hospital. It’s been a day. I’m ready to be back._

**_Veronica:_ ** _Are you done then?_

**_Betty:_ ** _Yeah. I’ve got a more than a few hours to kill before I even need to head to the airport. I don’t know what I’m going to do other than play games my phone. Lol_

**_Veronica:_ ** _Hold on, give me a second._

**_Veronica:_ ** _Okay, I changed your flight. Head to the airport like, now, and I’ll pick you up at midnight._

**_Betty:_ ** _You’re the best V! I’ll pay you back, I swear._

**_Veronica:_ ** _Don’t! Consider it my moving gift to you. Besides, $100 in airline fees is a small price to pay to have my best friend back._

**_Betty:_ ** _Seriously, I owe you._

Betty gathered up the the bag of trash from cleaning the apartment and tossed the rest of her Chinese food in it. She hauled it out to the trash shoot. The box of food she left at her neighbor’s door was already gone. She strapped on her backpack, slung her duffle bag over her shoulder, and said goodbye to the sad, little apartment.

———————————————————————————————————————

Jughead was alone with his thoughts on the ride back to Riverdale. Everything seemed fine when he left. He smiled thinking about the photos she had sent him last night. Did she regret being with him? What if she thought this was just about sex? Maybe asking her to get a place with him was too much too fast. What if he scared her off this time?

All he knew for sure is that he needed to get back as fast as he could and find a way to get her back. He couldn’t go through this again. He wouldn’t go through this again. He wasn’t going to make the same mistakes he did last time. This time he was going to fight tooth and nail for her.He was putting her first, not the Serpents.

He stopped to get gas a few hours out from Riverdale. Jughead spent as little time there as possible so he could get back on the road. He chugged a Red Bull and took a few long drags off his cigarette. Nicotine and caffeine were going to have to fuel him the rest of the way home.

———————————————————————————————————————

Betty’s flight was on time and she landed just before midnight. Veronica pulled her car upto the arrivals lane and Betty threw her duffle and backpack in the backseat.

“Take me home, B!”

Veronica put her foot on the gas and the girls laughed as she pulled out onto the highway. Betty still hadn’t heard back from Jughead so she sent him another text.

**_Betts:_ ** _I can’t wait to see you. Come home safe to me. I love you._

“You literally moved in less than 12 hours. Do you know how crazy that is?” Veronica asked.

“I didn’t have much there. My entire apartment could fit in your car, V.I grabbed a few things I wanted but I donated or threw everything else away.”

“You know what that means?” Veronica asked, raising an eyebrow at her friend? Betty shook her head. “Now when you and Jughead get a place, we get to go shopping for all new furniture! This is going to be fun!”

“I hadn’t really thought about it. I don’t even know what Jug would pick out. He’s always just used whatever was around.”

“We can keep the princess bed if you think he would be more comfortable,” Veronica laughed.

“Definitely not!” Betty said through giggles.

The girls were lighthearted, listening to music and singing along on the way back to Betty’s childhood home.

Betty got out of the car, grabbing her bags before saying good bye to Veronica. “Really, V, I owe you a ton. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Say no more! When my girl needs help, I’ve got her back. Go get some sleep, you earned it today.”

Betty practically burst through the front door.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” FP jumped out of his recliner. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Other than Jughead,” Jelly Bean snickered under her breath. FP shot Jelly Bean a look from the corner of his eye.

“I’ve just had a crazy 24 hours full of huge life decisions that I made while drunk on a wine I’m not cultured enough to pronounce,” Betty blurted out. She was grinning ear to ear.

FP smiled and shook his head, “Man, I remember those days.”

Betty went into the kitchen to get a glass of water. She was too pumped up to sleep, so she took her bags upstairs and straightened up the room she and Jughead shared. She picked up one of his flannels he left laying on the dresser and breathed in his scent. Tomorrow night seemed too far away. She wanted to tell him now. She missed him.

Betty pulled out her phone. Still no response. Betty started to get worried and was thinking of the worst case scenarios that he could be in but she was interrupted by the sound of a very loud motorcycle speeding down the street.


	21. Chapter 21

Jughead’s bike roared down the quiet street in Riverdale. He didn’t even bother parking in the driveway and haphazardly pulled into the side yard and killed the engine. He shoved his hand into the saddle bag of his bike and pulled out the small bag he had packed in there. All he wanted was to figure out how to get Betty back and fast.

He took long strides up to the front door. His heart was breaking. He didn’t want to go through this again. All of the adrenaline in him had been used up during the ride back to Riverdale. He sat down on the front steps with his head in his hands. He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes. He couldn’t do this again.

“Juggie?” Betty’s voice was small and distant.

Jughead looked up. He almost thought he had imagined her voice.

“Jug, what’s wrong?” She asked.

He spun around.A look of confusion spread across his tear soaked face. She reached out for him and he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down into his lap. The dam had broken and the tears continued to flow. All of the emotions he had felt over the past few hours came spilling out onto her t-shirt.

She held him to her chest. Her fingers combing through his sweat soaked hair. She didn’t force him to talk and just let him cry until he was done, rubbing soothing circles on his back. When his breathing became more slowed, she moved her hand down to his cheek and used her thumb to pacify him by rubbing it back and forth across his temple.

“You didn’t leave me.”

“I have no intentions of leaving you, Jug,” she told him. “We tried that before and it didn’t work, remember?”

He nodded and pulled her tighter against him.

“I didn’t hear from you and when I talked to Archie, he said you left and went to Boston.”

“I did go to Boston.”

He looked up at her. “What?” He asked, confusion settling in on his face again.

“I had this whole surprise set up for you,” she told him, stroking his face and running her fingers through his hair. “Veronica flew me to Boston this morning so I could quit my job and empty out my apartment. I just got back an hour ago. Didn’t you get my texts?”

He had been driving and hadn’t looked at his phone since he left the Seaside clubhouse. He reached into his jacket pocket then, and opened up his messages.

**_Betts:_ ** _I can’t wait to see you. Come home safe to me. I love you._

He re-read the message a few times. _I love you._

“Wait, so does this mean what I think it means?” He asked.

“Forsythe Pendelton Jones the Third, today I flew to Boston, got rid of almost everything I own, quit my job, and flew back here because I love you and I would do anything to be with you. I’m all in and I’m hoping you are too.”

“I love you Betty Cooper,” he told her. “I’m all in.”

Jughead crushed his lips against hers, slipping his tongue past her lips and into her mouth. She fought back against his crushing kiss by sucking and biting his lower lip. She twisted her body so that she was no longer sitting in his lap, but was straddling him on the front steps of the house. She ran her hands in his hair and he started peppering her neck with kisses. His hands slipped under the hem of her shirt and under the cup of her bra. His thumb grazed her taught nipple.

“Ahem,” FP loudly cleared his throat from the front door. Jughead and Betty froze. “We have neighbors and I could still arrest you both for lewd conduct. Take it inside.”

“Yes, Sir!” Jughead exclaimed. He stood up, sweeping Betty up in his arms as he did, and took the two large steps into the house before running up the stairs to their room. Our of respect of FP, they generally had refrained from having sex while he or Jelly Bean were home, but for tonight, Jughead said to hell with his rule.

Jughead dropped Betty down onto the bed as he struggled to get his jacket off. She had already pulled her own top off and had started undoing his pants by the time he pulled his shirt hit the floor. He reached down, grabbing her shorts and panties, and pulled them off in one smooth movement. She squealed as he spread her knees and came down on top of her, kissing her neck and groping her breast.

He reached down to her center and began rubbing tight circles on her bud. She began to moan and he put his hand over her mouth to muffle her cries. She pushed herself against his hand and her breathing quickened.

“Are you going to come for me baby?” He growled into her ear.

“Jug, I’m—- close—-,” she told him. “Don’t— Stop—-.”

The knot in her stomach began to tighten and she could feel the waves of pleasure sweeping over her body. She reached her hand up to his cheek while she rode out the waves of electricity in her core.

“Good girl.”

“Jug,” she said, looking up into his now dark green eyes. “I need you in me. Now."

He didn’t break eye contact and thrust his hard cock into her.

“Oh—-God—- Yes!,” she yelled.

She was so tight and warm, he started thrusting into her harder and faster. The little noises she was making were driving him almost to the brink.

“H-harder J-Juggie!”

He could feel her tightening and pulsating around him and he was pushed over the edge, spilling all of himself into her. He collapsed onto her and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He remained inside her as they laid there breathing heavily. He placed his forehead against hers.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you, too,” she confirmed.

Eventually, he had to remove himself from her. She immediately missed the full feeling his cock provided her with. Betty went to the bathroom to clean up and came back wearing only his t-shirt. She climbed into to bed and he pulled her into his arms, kissing the top of her head.

“I thought I lost you today.”

“I know. You got the complete opposite. Now you’re kinda stuck with me.”

He smiled into her hair. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

She slid one of her legs over his and buried her face into his chest. She wrapped her small arm across his lean stomach. He began tracing circles on her back with his fingers and within minutes her breathing became even and he knew she was asleep.


	22. Chapter 22

After the emotional evening, Betty and Jughead slept in until noon. They were a mess of limbs and skin as she lifted her head and blinked at the light streaming in the windows.

“Good morning, Mr. Jones,” she smiled at him while tracing her fingers over his chest.

Jughead was not a morning person. He grumbled and moved his arm back over his eyes to shield himself from the sunlight. Knowing he needed a few minutes before he was functional, Betty started her day and after a quick shower she was ready to get something to eat. Jughead was already sitting at the kitchen island when she came down the stairs. FP and Jelly Bean were sitting at the kitchen table looking at her upcoming school schedule. Jughead had poured himself a cup of coffee and had left her one, just the way she liked it, waiting for her on the island.

“Thanks, Jug,” she told him, picking up her mug and taking a long drink.

“Did you have plans for today?” He asked her.

“What did you have in mind?” She asked as she took another sip. She could feel herself absorbing the much needed caffeine.

“I thought maybe we could continue our conversation from last night,” he told her. FP cleared his throat and Jelly Bean snickered. “And maybe go look at some places today,” he continued.

“I second that,” FP said, smiling ear to ear. “I don’t know if JB or I can sleep through any more of those ‘conversations,’ especially if you two are back together again,” he said using finger quotes around the word ‘conversations.’

“His ego is big enough, you don’t have to scream his accolades for the whole neighborhood to hear,” Jelly Bean snorted under her breath.

Betty could feel her face blush. She had known they broke their own unspoken rule of not having sex at the house, but she hadn’t realized how loud they had been. She was mortified and buried her face in her hands and turned her back to FP and Jelly Bean.

Jughead reached out and ran his hands up and down her arms to try to soothe the sting of their very loud lovemaking. He loved watching the blush spread against her pale skin. “We are giving us another go,” he confirmed with his father before looking down at his very red girlfriend and kissed her forehead.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Betty had begged Jughead to take the SUV instead of the motorcycle as they went house hunting. She loved riding on the bike, but she wanted to try to avoid giving off a bad impression to their possible new neighbors. Betty knew not everyone would be as friendly to live next to the leader of a motorcycle gang.

The first apartment they looked at was on top floor of the building in downtown Riverdale. It was older and lacked an elevator, which Betty didn’t mind too much, but the thought of hauling furniture and groceries up and down the stairs were a big turn off for her. While it had looked like it had been renovated within the last ten years, Jughead was quick to point out how beige everything is.

The next apartment was deep in the Southside and had orange shag carpeting, paneled walls, and four bullet holes in the front door. Jughead immediately nixed that one. The third apartment they looked at was in Northside. It was a little more than they had wanted to spend, but Jughead liked that it had a small garage he could use and store his bike in. While they toured the apartment, both Betty and Jughead were made aware of just how thin the walls were as they could hear a baby from the neighboring unit screaming. One look between the two of them confirmed that they weren’t ready to listen to a screaming baby at all hours of the day and night.

Betty and Jughead sat on the deck at the Cooper-Jones house, waiting for the grill to heat up so he could cook their burgers. Betty sipped on her drink while scrolling through her phone at listings.

“What if we are being too picky?” She asked, looking up through her loose blonde curls.

“We aren’t,” he confirmed. “Today was a bit of a bust, I’ll agree. I’m sorry about that. We aren’t 18 anymore and I don’t think any of the things we are looking for in a place to live are out of the question.”

“That last one was pretty nice though.”

“The only babies I will tolerate listening to scream will be my own, thank you very much,” he told her, tossing the burgers on the grill. Betty felt her skin getting warmer, a sheer sign of her blushing. She hadn’t ever thought about having kids and while the idea of watching Jughead toting around a tiny version of himself was adorable, she wasn’t sure how the Serpents lifestyle would fit into how she had imagined raising a family.

Jughead could see she looked a little defeated from their first day of searching for a place to live. He liked the idea of having a garage, and they wanted to have a minimum of two bedrooms in case they needed a home office or a place for a friend to crash. Jughead, knowing a lot of the more unfavorable individuals in Riverdale, was even more concerned about safety. Being far away from Serpent territory was always a risk because then they wouldn’t have the protection of the Serpents as readily available, but he also knew how fast the crime rates were rising on that side of town thanks to the Ghoulies.

After dinner, FP joined the couple on the deck as they recounted the apartments they had looked at earlier in the day. FP laughed and Jughead made a joke about just taking the house over from him and putting him in a nursing home early.

“I’d like to see you try,” his father teased him back. “How’d the deal go this weekend? Did the boys get back okay?”

Betty excused herself from what was becoming a father-son dominated conversation about things she would rather not know the details of. She had gotten a call earlier today asking her to come in for a job interview at Riverdale Memorial Hospital the next morning. She had taken a shower, and while still wrapped in a towel, had decided to try to prep as much as she could for the morning. She had laid out a few different clothing options on the bed and was trying to decide between them, when there was a knock on the door.

“Redoing the closet again?” Jughead asked, leaning on the doorjamb with his arms crossed across his broad chest and looking at the clothes laid out on their bed.

“Something like that,” she told him. “I have an interview at Riverdale Memorial in the morning. I’m just trying to pick out what I’m gonna wear.”

“Hmmm,” he said as he stepped inside their room and eyed over the options. “It’s not my favorite, but you should wear that one,” he said, pointing at a light pink sweater and dark gray pants on the bed.

“But its not your favorite? What is?” She asked. Betty knew she would be able to probably charm her way through the interview, but these types of situations always made her anxiety skyrocket.

“This one,” he said, pulling the towel down from around her.

“Jug!” She yelled at him as she yanked the towel back and covered herself back up.

“You’re going to do great, Betts. They aren’t going to even care what you have on.”

______________________________________________________________________________

Betty was sound asleep when Jughead could hear the vibration of his phone against the bedside table. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes to see it was 3 AM and opened the messages on his phone. It took his eyes a few moments to adjust to the bright screen.

**_Sweetpea:_ ** _Sorry to bother you, Boss. Just caught a Ghoulie messing with bikes in the back lot and sneaking around. He is in the basement with Ace and Fangs and they are trying to get info out of him._

**_Jug:_ ** _I’m up now. Has he said anything yet?_

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _Dutchie said he was out back probably selling some of the hard stuff. Said he had it on him._

**_Jug:_ ** _So I guess the Ghoulies haven’t moved out of Riverdale yet like we had hoped. Keep pressuring him. See what else he knows. I’ll be there in the morning._

Jughead lay there awake, listening to Betty softly snoring next to him. She looked so peaceful as he ran through all the ways a full on turf war could be settled most efficiently. The Ghoulies hadn’t moved out and were still sneaking around Serpent territory. He ran his hands over his face in frustration. He had an obligation to the Serpents and had already left early from the deal with the Disciples so he could be with Betty. He wasn’t going to get out of handling this situation, and he didn’t want to leave it to anyone else. Jughead made a plan to wait until Betty left for her interview in the morning to head to the Whyte Wyrm.

He rolled over, watching her sleep for a few moments before his own eyelids began to feel heavy again.

______________________________________________________________________________

It was probably the nerves, but Betty was up, dressed, and printing out extra copies of her resume in the downstairs office far earlier than she needed to be. Jughead had made coffee and pancakes to try to help take the stress out of her morning. He knew that when she was like this, it was just best to stay out of the way and offer support when he could.

“Just breathe, Betts,” he told her, placing a hand on each shoulder and kissing her forehead. “You’re going to do great.”

“I don’t know why I’m freaking out,” she explained. “Its not even a full time job. Hell, its not even a part time job. Its just on an as needed basis.”

“I know you want it, but if for some reason it doesn’t work out, we could always put you on retainer with the Serpents. Be our own nurse Betty,” he chuckled. She wasn’t totally sure he was kidding. She knew that the Serpents had people they had on retainer that would come and deal with whatever they needed if and when they called them.

“Thanks, Jug. I’m not sure if I’m ready to be the go to person for the Serpents to call for help when things go south,” she told him. She told her self that that actually wouldn’t be too different than her job in the emergency department in Boston. She had helped with lots of stabbings and gunshot wounds, but treating them was outside of her scope of practice, legally. She had missed the adrenaline of the Boston hospital over the past few weeks, but she wasn’t sure she was up for doctoring up bikers in the back rooms of shady bars.

She finished her breakfast and coffee without spilling any on herself, which had been her main concern after she saw the jug of sticky maple syrup sitting on the counter. She kissed Jughead goodbye and got in her black SUV in the driveway before pulling out and heading towards the hospital. FP had decided to sign it over to her after she had made the move back to Riverdale. She was thankful for even having the option since riding on the back of Jughead’s bike in the rain and snow wasn’t all that fun. After Betty was gone, Jughead tossed the dishes in the sink, pulled on his jacket, and went out and kicked his bike to life.

The Wyrm was mostly empty, aside from Sweet Pea, Toni, Fangs, Dutchie, and Badger. Toni was cleaning the glasses behind the bar and said she was waiting on a delivery but everyone else was downstairs in the basement. The smell of iron filled Jughead’s nose as he descended into the darkness of the basement.

He could feel his personality shift into that of the hot-headed Serpent King as his boots smacked against the wood steps. A smirk curled up on his lip as he saw the Ghoulie tied to a chair. Blood dripped from his face, but with so many injuries it would be difficult to tell which one was the source. Jughead rolled up his sleeves and stepped in front of their captive.

“Said he was just trying to make some money,” Sweet Pea told Jughead from the corner of the room. His knuckles were bruised and dried blood speckled the front of his shirt.

Dutchie held up a handful of baggies with white crystals in them. “He had these on him along with this,”he said as he tossed a rolled up wad of cash onto the pile of baggies.

“Tsk-Tsk-Tsk,” Jughead said through his teeth, circling around the Ghoulie like a shark. “Malachi should have kept you boys on a shorter leash.”

Jughead pulled back and sunk a punch into the man’s jaw, opening another gash on the man’s face. “I guess we will need to send a message to Malachi,” he sneered. “And it’s your lucky day because we need a messenger.”

The Serpents continued the beating until the Ghoulie was unable to answer any more questions. When they were satisfied Fangs, Dutchie, and Badger loaded the man into the back of Badger’s truck. It was a short drive to Ghoulie territory from the Wyrm. The three dropped the bleeding and bruised man outside the doors of Hysteria, confident in Malachi getting the message.


	23. Chapter 23

Betty shook hands with her new boss and the head of human resources and thanked them for their time. They went over her training schedule, employment paperwork and welcomed her to the team. When Betty had gotten back into her SUV, she let herself relax finally. The weight she had been feeling in her chest finally lifted and she felt like she could take a deep breath. She was proud she had a way to bring in money as she didn’t want to have to rely on Jughead. They were a team and she needed to be able to provide for them just as well as he could.

On the way home, Betty called Veronica to share the good news. They decided to meet for lunch to celebrate. Veronica suggested the Riverdale Country Club, and within ten minutes, Betty was sitting down and enjoying sangria and appetizers with her friend.

“So is it official then?” Veronica probed. “Betty is here to stay _and_ she and Jughead are picking back up where they left off?

“Yeah, I would say so,” Betty reasoned. “I mean I did pick up and move across the country for him.”

“Its about time, Betty Cooper,” she told her. “You two were meant to be together since you met in Kindergarten.”

“We even went and looked at apartments yesterday,” she told her. Veronica almost choked on her bacon wrapped date. She eyed her friend as she told her how fast they were moving. “Like, this is happening. Like really happening,” Betty told her through wide, toothy smiles.

“Ooh do tell! I hope your hunt is going better than ours,” Veronica told her, her mood instantly improving. She would always be supportive of her friend and deep down she was excited that they were getting out of their childhood home.

Betty told her about the apartments they had looked at the day before. “I know we are being picky, but one day of searching has already been so exhausting.”

“Tell me about it! Archie would be happy staying in our apartment but I am ready to have some space to ourselves and not hear the neighbors through the floors.”

Another round of sangria was delivered to the table when Veronica spoke up. “B, I’ve been meaning to ask you and I wanted to wait to see how things were going with Jug,” she told her. “We are getting married in April and I can’t imagine being up there without you. So would you do me the honor of being my maid of honor?”

“Oh my gosh, yes!” Betty exclaimed, reaching over to hug her friend.

“Jug is, of course, Archie’s best man,” Veronica told her. “This is going to be so perfect.”

The girls continued to discuss wedding details when a busboy behind Betty caught Veronica’s eye. He was thin with sunken eyes and his hair was shoulder length and stringy. “I think you have an admirer,” she told Betty. “He’s been staring at you for like five minutes straight.”

Betty turned around as the busboy broke his line of sight with them and walked away with his head down. “What was that about? Do you think we should have known him?” Betty asked casually. She had been running into a lot of people from her childhood over the past few weeks and on more than one occasion she had blanked on someone’s name when they had come up to say hello.

Veronica shrugged and shook her head no. “He didn’t really look like anyone we would have hung out with, B.” Betty shrugged it off to coincidence.

The girls finished their meal and Veronica was meeting Archie to look at another potential home. Betty decided to not call it a day yet, and went over to the the Whyte Wyrm with the hopes of seeing Jughead and spending some time with Toni. Pulling back out into the light Riverdale traffic, Betty noticed an older Honda about two cars back that was mirroring her every turn. She made a few extra turns on the way to the Wyrm and the car stuck with her the whole time. She didn’t want to make mountains out of molehills, but to be safe, she decided to call Jughead.

“Betts,” he answered on the first ring, his voice serious.

“Are you at the Wyrm?” She asked, trying to keep the panic in her voice to a minimum.

“Yeah, were are you, Betts? What’s wrong?” She hadn’t hid it very well as he began to feed off of her energy. He knew her too well.

“I don’t really know. I’ll be at the Wyrm in, like, 2 minutes. I need you to meet me out back. I think someone’s following me.”

“I’ll be out there. Pull around back and just stay in the car.”

Betty pulled into the back lot of the Whyte Wyrm within minutes. Jughead was outside with Fangs and Sweet Pea. He was leaned up against the building, smoking a cigarette when Betty turned in from the main road. Jughead walked over to the tinted window of her SUV as the Honda pulled into the lot.

He nodded at Betty as she got out of her vehicle. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and tucked her into his side as he walked her inside. At the same time, Fangs and Sweet Pea approached the Honda. Before they could get close enough to pull the driver out, the driver hit the gas and sped out of the lot and back onto the main road.

“I couldn’t tell who it was,” Fangs told Jughead as they came back inside the bar. “He got spooked and drove off before we could get close. No plates though.”

Jughead would have preferred it have been Betty’s imagination making her think she was being followed, but that was not the case. “Thanks. Keep an eye out. Have Ace watch the doors tonight,” Jughead said to no one in particular before leading Betty up to the apartment above the bar.

“Thank you for being there,” Betty told him and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He placed his hands on her waist, pulling her closer to him.

“When did you notice him following you? When you left the hospital?”

“No, I was leaving the country club. I ended up meeting Veronica for lunch. And there was this creepy busboy that kept watching us, but then he disappeared,” Betty told him. “Then I left and I was going to head home but changed my mind and decided to come here. That’s when I noticed the car following me.”

He stood with his lips pursed, looking down at his girlfriend in his arms. “I’m glad you did,” his stern face softening. “It’s been a little tense around here today. I think who ever was in that car got scared when he saw you had us on your side. He took off pretty quick.”

Jughead was not happy about Betty being followed. He assumed it was Ghoulies as they would have received their message by now. The Ghoulies weren’t known to act fast, and Jughead had a hard time believing Malachi would have sent someone out so soon and in broad daylight. Malachi knew that Jughead’s biggest weakness was Betty and Jughead knew he would try to use that to his advantage.

“What are you thinking?” Betty asked as the scowl had returned to Jughead’s face.

“Serpent stuff,” He told her. “And you.”

“I’m fine,” she assured him as she blushed. She liked the idea of him thinking about her. “I just got spooked. You were there. It was fine.”

“I know, thank you for calling me,” he told her. She laid her head on his chest and wrapped her arms around him tighter.

“Oh, hey, I start work tomorrow,” she told him, smiling up through her long lashes. “Seven am sharp. You are looking at the newest Riverdale Memorial Emergency Department nurse.”

“That’s my girl” He told her. “I’m guessing you don’t want to stay here tonight then, huh?”

“Probably not,” she told him. She didn’t mind staying at the apartment at the Wyrm, but it was loud and smokey. She wanted to be well rested for her first day. “I will probably have to go to bed early so I can get back on some sort of a schedule.”

“Then let me finish up here and we can go back to the house and have a quiet night in,” he told her.

“You can stay if you need to, Jug,” she told him. “Don’t change your plans because of me.”

“I’m not changing any plans,” he responded. “Lets go downstairs and you can hang with Toni and I’ll finish up with Sweets and we can go.”

Sweet Pea, Fangs, and Jughead had all gone to the clubhouse conference room and left Betty at the bar. Toni was serving a few other customers but focused her attention on the pretty blonde.

“You drinking?” Toni asked.

“Not tonight,” she told her. Betty had a genuine smile plastered across her face. “I start my new job tomorrow morning.”

“Congrats! More reason to have a drink,” Toni encouraged her and poured her a shot. “Just one, I promise.”

Betty rolled her eyes and threw the shot back. It burned going down and tasted like oranges.

“Ladies! What are we celebrating?” Dutchie asked as he plopped down on the barstool next to Betty. He looked from one to the other with half shut, blood shot eyes.

“Betty got a new job and starts tomorrow,” Toni told the resident party boy.

“Where at? Here at the Wyrm?” Dutchie asked.

“No,” Betty laughed. “Over at Riverdale Memorial.”

“Betty got out of town for a few years and got her nursing license,” Toni told him, proud of her friend.

“Whoa, so like, can I ask you a question?” He asked Betty as she nodded, unsure of what she had just agreed to. Dutchie hopped off his barstool and dropped his pants just as Jughead, Sweet Pea, and Fangs walked out of the hallway that led to the conference room and across the bar towards Betty.

“Does this look infected?”

“Oh! God! Dutch, put it away!” Toni yelled. “We still have to pretend to follow the health code in here.” She kept staring, and then with pure curiosity asked “Why the fuck are your pubes green?”

“Its a snake in the grass. Get it, Toni?” Dutchie laughed, waving his flaccid penis towards Toni. “But really, Betty, does this look messed up?” He asked pointed to his shaft.

“And this is why I don’t date Serpents,” Toni rolled her eyes at Dutchie. “Jesus, I worry about the women you pick up here.”

“I’m really hoping there is a good reason Dutchie is standing in the bar with his dick out before 2 AM,” Jughead said to the group.

Dutchie, suddenly embarrassed, pulled his pants back up and sat back down on his barstool.

“Don’t worry boss, I was just showing your old lady something,” he told Jughead.

Jughead lifted one eyebrow, watching the Serpent standing next to his girlfriend. “And with _that_ we are leaving.” He put and arm around Betty’s shoulders and they started to leave.

Betty stopped and looked back to the bar where the others had taken their spots. “Hey Dutchie, that’s definitely infected.”


	24. Chapter 24

Walking into Riverdale Memorial Hospital, Betty was both nervous and excited to get into the swing of things. She had had so many bad memories in this hospital, she was ready to make some good ones. Betty was paired up with Harper, another nurse on her unit who spent the first few hours showing her around the hospital, taking her to human resources to finish paperwork, and orienting her to the emergency department.

Riverdale Memorial was much smaller than the hospital in Boston. Within hours, Betty was feeling more confident in herself and was able to step up and take on more of the patient load she was suppose to be sharing with Harper.

“Its so nice training someone who has worked somewhere else,” Harper told her over lunch. “It saves us both a ton of time.”

Harper had caramel skin and light brown hair that cascaded around her face in voluminous natural curls. Betty had assumed she was a few years older than her due to the confidence she exuded.

“I’ve only worked one other place, but it was really fast paced. I’m just glad I could find a job here in Riverdale,” Betty told her. “I wasn’t looking forward to commuting.”

“You’re doing great. They would have been idiots to turn you away,” Harper told her. “And the pace here is fairly relaxed. We get the normal stuff but I don’t run near as hard as I did in New York.”

The rest of the shift was slow and it allowed for Betty to catch up on her orientation requirements. She didn’t have another shift until next week, but after that she would be on her own. Betty made a copy of the schedule so she can let Jughead know when she is working the rest of the month. Harper introduced her to the other nurses and the doctors she would be working with. Betty felt relived that everyone she had talked to had been so welcoming of her, even if it was only on the surface.

At the end of her shift, Betty clocked out and walked out to the dimly lit parking lot. The sun was starting to sink earlier in the day and Betty had parked in the employee lot behind the building. She was about halfway across the lot when she realized the SUV looked lopsided. It was leaning towards the drivers side and she realized both of her drivers side tires were flat. Parked closely to the drivers side of the vehicle was an unmarked white van with someone sitting in the drivers seat. She got an uneasy feeling and picked up her phone as she felt the knot begin to form in her stomach.

“Betts,” he answered as soon as she called.

“Hey Jug, can you come pick me up from work? The SUV has two flats,” she told him. She decided to leave out the fact that there was a very creepy van parked far too closely to her car. Betty knew Jughead would get on his bike and race to her just from the phone call, so there was no need to go into more detail that might just set him off. He had been incredibly tense the last few days and while none of his anger was directed at her, she had seen what Veronica had told her about him being a hot-head.

“Go wait inside the building. I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he told her. The seriousness in his voice let her know that these flats were probably not a coincidence. She felt a sudden drop in her stomach and the anxiety she felt the day before when she was being followed was back. She walked back into the entrance of the hospital to wait.

Jughead pulled up to the front of the building and Betty stepped outside. He handed her his helmet and she got onto the back, hoping her new coworkers weren’t judging her for climbing on the back of a bike with a Southside Serpent. Or maybe she hoped they did see. Riverdale was a small town and she wasn’t going to be able to keep her Serpent Queen status hidden for long.

Arriving back to the house, Betty tossed her bag by the front door and went into the kitchen to find something to eat. She was famished. Jughead pulled out his phone and began texting furiously.

**_Jughead:_ ** _Someone slashed two of Betty’s tires. Can you have someone go change them out?_

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _Where was she?_

**_Jughead:_ ** _At work at the hospital. Maybe scope out the place and make sure no one is waiting for her to come back? I saw a van parked next to her._

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _I’ll send a couple of the guys out now._

**_Jughead:_ ** _I’m going to see if I can get Betty to agree to swing by the Wyrm. I need to come back for a bit and I don’t want to leave her at home._

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _Leave the keys with FP and I’ll have the guys bring her car back and she can get it at the Wyrm later when its fixed._

**_Jughead:_ ** _Everything else good on the home front?_

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _So far, so good._

**_Jughead:_ ** _See you in an hour._

“Hey Betts,” Jughead called out into the kitchen.

“You hungry? I’m starving,” she told him. She didn’t wait for his answer and smiled while shaking her head at him like she had just asked a dumb question. Jughead was always hungry, and yet still stayed thin and fit despite the massive quantities of food he consumed. It must have been a Jones trait, as FP and Jelly Bean both shared their love of food with Jughead. Betty pulled out left over pizza from the refrigerator and tossed it in the oven for both of them.

“You’re off tomorrow right? Sweet Pea sent some guys to switch out your tires and they are going to meet us at the Wyrm when they are done,” Jughead told her. “I need to talk to Sweets and the guys. The Ghoulies are getting more aggressive and I don’t think your recent car trouble was a coincidence.”

“You think Ghoulies gave me the flats? What if I just drove through a construction area or something?” Betty asked. She didn’t want it to be the Ghoulies and she definitely didn’t want a territory war to break out over her over-reacting to some flat tires.

“Are you okay?” He asked, focusing on making eye contact with her. He could see the gears turning in her head. Her eyebrows was furrowed and she was staring off into a distant corner of the kitchen.

Betty snapped back to the moment, “Oh. Yeah. I’m fine. Just a little tired. I haven’t worked a full shift in a few weeks and I’m a little off my game.”

“Was it as thrilling as Boston?” He asked, brushing a piece of golden hair behind her ear.

She smiled up at him. “Thoroughly average and it was wonderful,” she told him.

“I will say, I do like how you look in your scrubs,” he told her, moving his hands from her waist to her ass, cupping a cheek in each hand. “Maybe later we can play doctor like we use to in the treehouse when we were kids. I remember getting in so much trouble because we kept taking our clothes off.”

She could feel his member harden against her stomach and saw his green eyes darken. He leaned down and began kissing her neck. She tried to stifle a giggle.

“Except I was never there when you were playing doctor, Jug,” she laughed. “That was always you and Archie.”

——————————————————————————————————————-

Back at the Wyrm, Betty settled onto a barstool at the far end of the bar. It was a fairly steady night and Toni was working her way up and down the bar, filling drink orders and stuffing the till with money from the patrons. Betty sipped on her beer, scrolling through Craigslist for more rentals. She hadn’t lied before, she was tired but she could tell that Jughead was in the middle of something with the Serpents and didn’t want to be a distraction for him. When she had left him before it was because she had become his second priority to the Serpents. She knew that he had been putting her before the Serpents since she had been back and tonight was no different. He was making sure her vehicle was drivable and he wanted her there with him before he would finish whatever they were doing.

“So… how was your first day? Are you regretting coming back yet?” Toni asked her friend from across the bar.

“It was fine. Way slower pace,” she told her. “I’m not complaining though.”

“Just don’t go completely ditching us for all your super smart hospital friends,” she joked.

“I would never even think of it,” she assured Toni.

A few seats down, Dutchie was flirting with a red headed woman who giggled far more than was necessary. Toni and Betty looked on as the two were practically groping each other just a few feet from them. Dutchie excused himself to go to the bathroom, so Toni swept in.

“Hey babe,” she smiled at her, flirting with the girl as much as she could through the noise of the bar. “Have you ever had the clap before?”

“W-what? No,” the red head answered her back with a horrified look on her face.

“Go home with Dutchie and you definitely will,” she told her, patting her had a few times and sliding a slip of paper with her number on it before walking back to the end of the bar where Betty was sitting. The red head remained with a look of shock for a few moments before taking her drink and walking back to where her friends were sitting by the pool tables.

“Stealing Dutchie’s chicks again?” Betty questioned her friend.

“Hey, they aren’t the only ones trying to get laid around here,” she laughed. “And lets be honest, whatever it is he has going on down there isn’t normal. Warning her was my way of performing community service,” she joked. Toni wasn’t picky with her toys. Betty hadn’t ever seen her in an actual relationship other than with their friend Cheryl in high school. That didn’t mean she was without companionship and when it came to Toni’s preferences, everything was fair game.

“Okay, what about this one?” Betty asked Toni about a rental she pulled up on her phone. It was a townhouse, not far from the Whyte Wyrm. Old bricks dressed up the outside of the three story home. There was a garage on the first floor, the second floor was a kitchen, living room and half bath, and the upstairs had two bedrooms and two baths. “Weirdly enough, its in our price range.”

“That place isn’t far from here,” Toni told her, scrolling through the photos. “And it has a garage so Jug would like that. Its way nicer than the trailer I’m still in over in Sunnyside. You should see if you can go check it out. A place like that won’t last long around here.”

“Good point,” Betty agreed before sending an email to the landlord. Toni continued to pass out drinks to the patrons in the bar. Betty could see Dutchie continuing to try to lure the red head to his place from across the bar. One drink thrown in his face later, he was saddling back up to the bar next to Betty to drown his sorrows in yet another drink while he rolled a joint.

“You want some?” He asked, looking at Betty.

“No thanks,” she told him. He shrugged his shoulders and left out the door to the back parking lot. As she started on her second beer of the night, Betty’s phone vibrated alerting her to a new email. It was the landlord she had emailed not more than an hour before. After a few messages back and forth, Betty set up a time to come look at the townhouse the next day.

———————————————————————————————————————

Jughead leaned back in his chair at the head of the table in the conference room. He was surrounded by a handful of his men and flanked by Sweet Pea.

“Where’s Badger?” Sweet Pea asked while looking around the room. He wasn’t always key in formulating a plan, but he was pure muscle and always willing to do anything the Serpents asked him. He lived up to his name and Badger didn’t give a fuck.

“I saw him talking to some chick a few hours ago, he may have left with her,” Fangs told him.

Jughead spoke next. “The Ghoulies are getting braver and stepping over into our turf again. And since I lost my head at Hysteria and shot Malachi, they are starting to target more than just our turf and focusing more on the Serpents. Specifically me,” he told them. “In order to get to me though, they are messing with Betty. A few of you know she got tailed yesterday but they blew the coop before we could get to them. Earlier tonight, Betty had two of her tires slashed while she was at work.”

“We got them switched and brought her car back here, but they hit her car in broad daylight, so they are either idiots or they are getting braver,” Sweet Pea spoke up. “We need to get a man to watch out while she’s at work. And we need to up the security here at the Wyrm. Patrols through Sunnyside are going to continue as well. We need to protect our territory and our people.”

Looking around the dimly lit room, heads nodded in approval of the plan. Betty wasn’t going to be happy about having a Serpent body guard while she was out and about, but Jughead knew he wouldn’t be able to be there all the time with everything else going on.

Jughead followed the others down to the bar and spotted his blonde girlfriend beaming at the end of the bar and giggling with Toni.

“Busy night?” He asked Toni, looking around the room that had about twenty to thirty people spread throughout it.

“Its been steady,” she told him. She could see him zero in on Betty and decided it was time to refill a glass at the other end of the bar. Even though she and Jughead had been friends most of their lives, she knew that he was incredibly possessive of Betty and wanted to give them a few minutes to themselves.

“Want to get out of here?” He asked, motioning upstairs to the apartment above the bar.

“I’m exhausted, so yes,” she said, hopping off the stool. Jughead followed her small frame up the dark stairs to the apartment he sometimes called home. He unlocked the door and they stepped inside. He shrugged off his jacket and tossed it over one of the stools at the kitchen island. He turned on a lamp in the corner of the living room before stepping out onto the balcony to smoke a cigarette.

Betty kicked off her shoes and got a glass of water. Seeing Jughead on the balcony lost in his own thoughts, she left a trail of clothes to the bathroom where she had turned on the hot water. She heard the door open and close. Jughead stepped into the shower, still tense from his meeting with the other Serpents. She pulled his tight body against her and turned so that he was under the hot water. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, pulling her tighter against his body as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She could feel him hardening against her as he deepened their kiss and she opened her lips to his.

The couple was pulled back to reality by a loud knocking at the apartment door.

“Fuck. This better be good,” Jughead growled. He wrapped a towel around his waist and stormed out of the bathroom. Betty finished rinsing her body off before wrapping a fluffy towel around herself. She cracked the bathroom door so she could see if the coast was clear to sneak into the bedroom to find something to wear.

Fangs was at the door and he and Jughead were talking in hushed but harsh voices. From below in the bar, she could make out someone yelling “everyone out!”

“We’re coming,” he told him before Fangs fled back down the stairs. “Betts, get dressed. We need you. Now.”

Betty pulled out a pair of Jughead’s old gym shorts and rolled them at the waist so that they didn’t hang to her ankles. She pulled one of Jughead’s t-shirts on over her head. Jughead was pulling on some ripped jeans and a t-shirt. He flattened the shirt down over his abs before he ran a hand through his sopping hair and threw water droplets behind him. Betty wanted nothing more than to run her fingers through his hair, but knew that there was not enough time for those pleasantries as he was grabbing her hand and leading her downstairs to the bar as fast as they could go.


	25. Chapter 25

Badger was laid out on a table in the bar when Jughead and Betty came downstairs, although, it would have been difficult to recognize him from first glances. He was bruised and battered, with blood coating and coagulating in the lines of his face. His breathing was shallow and labored. His shirt was streaked with blood, with its source coming from somewhere underneath it.

Toni was ushering the last patrons out the front door and locking them behind her. Fangs carried out a bag and tossed it to Betty, who caught it with both hands and stepped towards the table. All eyes on her, she started dumping the contents of the bag on the table next to Badger.

“Cut his shirt off,” she told Sweet Pea who was standing closest to Badger’s side. Sweet Pea pulled out a knife and cut through Badger’s thin t-shirt. Once the shirt was gone, a very prominent hole could be seen in his abdomen.

“Help me turn him over real quick,” she told Sweet Pea and Jughead. They rolled him onto his side so that she could see the exit wound. Betty cleaned the area and pulled out a suture kit and needle drivers from the bag. Betty had never actually sutured anyone up before, but she had seen enough that she was feeling fairly confident in her abilities. A few stitches later and it wasn’t bleeding as much as it obviously had been, so she was hopeful the bullet hadn’t hit anything too important. She placed a gauze dressing over it to keep it as clean as they could.

The men shuffled and laid Badger back down onto his back. “I need a pitcher of water, some towels, and a shot of whiskey,” she told Sweet Pea who was happy to step away for a moment to get supplies.

He came back carrying a pitcher of water and towels under his arms. He handed Betty a bottle of Jack Daniels. She took the cap off and took a swig and set the bottle back down before continuing her survey of the man in front of her.

“What?,” she looked around at the eyes on her. “I’m too sober for this right now.”

The group looked back and forth, Jughead smirking a little. He had never seen Betty in nurse mode and he was weirdly turned on watching her bloody hands work while confidently calling the shots and bossing everyone around.

“Help me get these cleaned up,” she told Toni. Toni looked over the bloody Serpent in front of her and flinched. Toni hated blood. She threw a towel at Toni, snapping her out of her trance. “Its blood, not nuclear waste. Give me a hand.” Toni took the towel and began working on wiping the blood away from Badger’s body.

Becky worked quickly to clean the bullet’s entry wound and began placing two stitches around the hole. Badger was going to be sore the next day and she wasn’t sure he didn’t have internal bleeding, but knowing that the Serpents avoided the hospital as much as possible, she wasn’t going to push the issue right at the moment. She had it patched the best she could for the time being. Betty moved onto the other wounds on his arms and chest. His skin was bruising and swollen. A few areas had split at some point but they weren’t as deep and the gunshot wounds so Betty showed Toni how to clean and dress them so that she could focus on his face.

Badger’s eyes were swollen shut and his lip was split in a few places. Blood had leaked and dried in his left ear. She was pretty sure he had probably ruptured his eardrum. She forced his eyes open and used the light of her cell phone to check his pupils. They were still reactive but she assumed he had a concussion. He groaned as the light hit his eyes, alerting her to him still being minutely conscious.

The cut above his eyebrow was deep and continued to bleed as she cleaned it. “Sweets can you get some ice? He’s gonna need lots of ice after this.”

Looking back through the supplies on the table beside him, Betty reached for the package of sutures and needle drivers. She drove the needle through the skin above his eyebrow, which was painful enough to wake Badger up from his current state. He sat up, screamed, and began swinging. Betty dodged his fist, but Toni took a misplaced hit to the shoulder.

“Hold him down!” Jughead yelled to the other men in the group before throwing his own arms down across Badger’s chest. With Badger restrained, Betty apologized to him and continued on with her suturing efforts. After a few more minutes and a quite a few more screams, Badger’s eyebrow was pieced back together. She reached for the ice Sweet Pea had brought over and placed it on his eyebrow. Jughead helped him sit back up, keeping a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

“What the hell happened?” Jughead asked him, trying to look him in the eye but was met with swollen purple skin.

“I met this girl and we were going back to her place,” he told them, slowly recounting the night. “We got to her apartment and I got jumped by a bunch of Ghoulies. They were waiting for me. It was a fucking trap, man,” he said, looking up at Jughead.

Betty handed him some Tylenol and a glass of water. “You’re going to hurt, Badger,” Betty told him. “That gunshot was a through and through, but I’m not positive it didn’t hit anything. It seems to have stopped bleeding through. That’s up to you if you want to get it checked out.”

“All I want to do right now is go to sleep,” he said, rubbing the back of his head.

“That’s probably not the best idea,” she told him. “You have a concussion."

Jughead looked to Fangs. “Get him settled in the conference room and stay with him. Wake him up every hour and make sure he’s okay.” Betty handed Fangs the bottle of Tylenol as well. Toni and Fangs helped Badger to his feet and lead him up to the conference room.

Jughead and Sweet Pea talked over by the bar and Betty busied herself by cleaning up the used supplies, wiping down the table Badger had been on with bleach, and re-packing what she assumed was the Serpent first aid kit. She made a mental note of what she used so that she could try to replace it later. Jughead had joked before about keeping her on retainer, but she didn’t think he was serious or would have had to call her into active duty this quickly.

When they were younger, she had found herself in the middle of the action with the Serpents more often than she would have liked to admit. Jughead kept her out of the illegal stuff for the most part, but she didn’t want to be treated any differently just because she was dating the King. Thinking back, she missed the times she got to use her fists. She remembered the feeling of the darkness inside of her taking over as she, on more than one occasion, found herself on the dispensing end of the pain. Jughead had always tried to keep her far enough removed so that she wouldn’t get seriously hurt, but she had seen her fair share of bruises, sprains, and broken bones over the years.

Betty stood in the back storeroom of the bar, washing the blood from her hands and forearms when Jughead came in and leaned against the doorway.

“You okay?” He asked as he handed her a towel to dry her hands off with.

“Better than Badger,” she told him.

“You were great, Betts,” he assured her. “Thank you for doing that. It would have been a mess if any of us had done it.”

“I’ll make you a list of what we used tomorrow so you guys can replace it.”

“We can talk about it tomorrow,” he told her. He took a step forward and pulled her into his chest. “Lets just go to bed.”

With the bar being closed, the apartment was quiet when they returned upstairs. The sound of a late summer rainstorm could be heard against the windows. Betty looked down at her clothes. It was now after midnight and all she wanted was to fall asleep, but she realized she was covered in Badger’s blood. She stripped off her clothes and got back in the shower to make sure she was totally rinsed off. She wrapped herself in her fluffy towel and began brushing her teeth as Jughead stepped into the shower to do the same. He could see how drained she was from the day. He was feeling it too. He wasn’t sure what tomorrow would bring, and right now he was ready to drift off to sleep.

Tossing the towel over the chair of his desk in his room, Betty climbed into the king size bed and let her head hit the pillow. Her eyes flittered as she felt the bed shift under Jughead’s body, but she couldn’t seem to keep them open for longer than a second before falling back asleep. He wrapped his arm across her and pulled her back against his body and pulling the thick comforter up around them.

———————————————————————————————————————

Jughead woke up to the smell of bacon, which was ranked number two in his top three ways to wake up; ways one and three both involved Betty in some state of undress. After pulling on some pajamas pants, Jughead entered the rest of the apartment where she was serving up breakfast and coffee. She was a ray of sunshine, smiling as she spotted him. She was wearing one of his t-shirts that skimmed the top of her thighs and let her ass peak out from the hemline when she reached for something in the cabinet. He could only imagine having this perfect woman in his kitchen every morning for the rest of his life.

The moment was forgotten when he opened his phone to check his one new text message from Sweet Pea.

**_Sweet Pea:_ ** _Got a call from Seaside. I’m around when you’re up._

He pushed the phone away, not ready to deal with whatever is going on just yet. They sat at the kitchen island, enjoying their breakfast when Betty told him she wanted to check on Badger and then go home and get some real clothes. Jughead cleaned up from breakfast while Betty slipped her scrub pants back on and tucked the front of his T-shirt into them. Her hair had gone wild after falling asleep with it wet. She combed her fingers through it as best she should and settled on pulling it into a messy bun on top of her head.

Jughead had gotten the keys to Betty’s car from Sweet Pea last night and he tossed them over onto her purse for her. He wandered back into the bedroom while Betty was finishing getting ready in the bathroom. He pulled on jeans and a t-shirt before lacing up his black boots. He gathered up the bloody clothing from the night before and shoved it into a bag so they could wash it when they got back to the house.

“Hey Betts,” he called out to her in the other room. “I hate to do this but I’m going to have to deal with some Serpent stuff this morning. I should be done by this afternoon though. Will you be okay with out me?”

“I’ll survive,” she assured him. “I can go stop by the store on my way back to the house and get replacement supplies for what we used last night, if you want.”

“I don’t really want you running around alone right now,” he told her, his voice serious. “Not with everything going on.”

“I’ll keep my eyes peeled,” she promised. “I’ll see if JB wants to go with me, okay? The Ghoulies haven’t made any attempts to get at any of us unless they are alone.”

Jughead thought about what she had just said and it was true. Every attack from the Ghoulies had been singular; Toni was home alone, Ace just happened to show up, and Badger had been singled out by someone at the bar. Betty had even said that even though there was a creepy guy at the country club, no one had started following her until she was alone and then the moment she wasn’t alone the guy drove off.

Reaching into his wallet, Jughead handed her a credit card. “Get whatever you want to have on hand for medical supplies, just try to keep it under $500, okay?”

“Deal,” she told him, taking the card and kissing him on the cheek. Other than determining what they could both put towards a place each month, she really had no idea what Jughead’s bank account looked like these days.

They stopped to check on Badger who was still asleep on a leather couch in the corner of the conference room. Fangs was asleep nearby on the floor. Betty checked his dressings while Jughead replaced his ice for his face. Nothing had bled too much more, but the bruising and swelling was more evident today. His face had started to resemble a squished blueberry.

“He’s not going to be winning any beauty pageants any time soon, but he should be okay as long as he keeps everything clean,” Betty told Jughead.

Jughead walked her outside to her SUV, waiting until she was buckled in and pulling out of the parking lot before going back inside to find Sweet Pea and see what other sort of trouble the Serpents were finding themselves in this morning.


	26. Chapter 26

Betty finished tossing the bloody clothes from last night in the washer before going upstairs to where Jelly Bean was lounging and watching TV. She was spending the last few days of summer break relaxing as much as possible. Betty had seen her schedule and Jelly Bean was enrolled in mostly AP classes, so she understood the need to do nothing.

“Hey, I need to run to the store,” Betty told Jelly Bean. “Want to go? Get out of the house for a bit?”

“I’ll get my bag,” she told her, rolling off the couch. Betty had been almost worried she would turn down her offer, but her enthusiasm to get out of the house had been unexpected.

The two got into Betty’s car and pulled into the big box store not more than ten minutes later. Betty pushed a cart as she and Jelly Bean wandered the aisles, trying on sunglasses and looking through racks of clothing. “What did you need to get?” Jelly Bean asked.

“Some stuff for your brother’s first aid kit,” she told her. FP and Jughead had tried to keep Jelly Bean out of the Serpent life as much as possible, knowing she had a bright future in front of her and neither wanted her to settle for working a low paying job and running guns with them. Jelly Bean had asked at one point about joining and Betty remembers FP cringing at the thought of her going through initiation. He probably would have tried to stop Betty from joining if he hadn’t been in jail at the time.

Betty pushed the cart through the pharmacy section, picking up gauze, bandages, and beta-dine. She turned boxes of supplies over in her hands, making sure it was something she wanted to have on hand. He had given her a pretty hefty budget but she didn’t want to just start spending if she didn’t have to. She had used the only package of sutures last night and knew that she wasn’t going to be able to find them here. She decided she would order them online later today.

Jelly Bean was looking through the makeup section when Betty decided she had gotten enough supplies. Her hands were full of eyeshadow and matching lipstick in a shade of purple Betty knew that she herself was never edgy enough to pull off. Jelly Bean, however, was a smaller version of her brother. She had his sharp features, olive skin, and thick, curly black hair. One main difference was the few streaks of purple she had in her hair that was only ever visible when she had her hair pulled up and off her neck.

“Hey, I almost forgot,” Betty told her. “I need to go look at this rental in like thirty minutes. Do you mind going with me?”

Betty had been checking her phone periodically to see if Jughead had messaged her telling her he was done with what he was doing. She could see he was stressed and didn't want to burden him with looking at another rental when he had bigger things to deal with. With Jelly Bean with her, he shouldn’t complain too much about her going to check this place out as she wouldn’t be alone.

“I could be persuaded to ride along,” she smirked. “With a coffee, of course.”

After checking out, Betty was impressed that her purchases were under $150. Jelly Bean placed her order at the Starbucks counter and Betty paid for both their coffees.

“Are you ready for school?” Betty asked as they waited for their drinks.

“I guess so,” Jelly Bean told her, looking down at the floor. “I’m just ready to be done and then I can get on with college.”

“College is fun, but don’t forget to enjoy the little things this year,” Betty reminded her, thinking of her own senior year. She thought back to cheerleading practices, with Jughead watching in the stands for more hours than he would have liked to admit, helping solve the mysteries of their small town, milkshakes at Pop’s with her friends, and all of the small moments that made her fall head over heels for Jughead the first time.

Betty let Jelly Bean drive as she rarely got the opportunity to as her father rode a motorcycle when he wasn’t in his squad car. Betty plugged the address into her phone and navigated while Jelly Bean drove them through Riverdale. In true Betty Cooper fashion, the girls pulled up to the townhouse listed in the ad right on time. It looked exactly as it did in the ad, with the garage on the first floor looking out onto one of the cleaner streets in this part of Southside.

Betty rang the doorbell and was greeted by a middle aged man. He welcomed them with a smile, but the look in his eyes made Betty uncomfortable. As he invited them into the house, Betty silently sent her location to Jughead from her phone, hoping he wouldn’t come tearing into the neighborhood if this was a false alarm but also wanting him to know where they were if the vibe the landlord was giving off didn’t change in the next few minutes.

Jelly Bean walked through the townhouse and ran her fingers over the stone countertops as Betty asked the landlord questions about the neighbors, rent, and utilities. She could feel his eyes traveling up and down her body. Jelly Bean ventured upstairs to check out the bedrooms while Betty spent a few more minutes going through the kitchen.

“Betty, these rooms are huge!” Jelly Bean called from upstairs. Betty looked up towards the staircase leading to where Jelly Bean had gone before everything went black.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Jughead had taken a second cup of coffee down to the bar. Sweet Pea was sitting in a booth with Ace and Fangs. It was getting closer to lunch and the three said they were waiting for Dutchie to get back with some food. Badger was back asleep in the conference room but Ace was planning on taking him back to the trailer he shared with Fangs and Dutchie when he woke up next time.

Dutchie kicked his way through the back door, making the group jump. “Who’s hungry?!”

Dutchie started tossing fast food burgers and fries to the group, with the exception of Ace who was handed a small box with a salad.

“You know, Ace. Going to McDonald’s for a salad is the same as going to a hooker for hug,” Fangs joked.

“Yeah well my old lady said I’ve got to start watching my cholesterol,” he grumbled and leaned back into the booth.

After everyone had started unwrapping their lunch, Sweet pea spoke up.

“Seaside called saying they had gotten wind of the Disciples selling some of our guns to the Ghoulies in exchange for drugs,” Sweet Pea told the group. “We obviously have to cut ties with the Disciples, which is going to hurt our cash flow.”

“Fuck the cash flow,” Jughead said, his eyes darkening to an emerald green now. “Selling to the Disciples means we just armed our enemies.” He ran his hands over his face in frustration.

“And Malachi was able to spread his reach in the drug game,” Ace spoke up. He was in his late forties and one of the older members who were still active in the Serpents. He had been a good voice of reason for Jughead over the years and his loyalty to the group was always appreciated. “More kids hooked on his drugs means the Ghoulies numbers are growing.”

“The Ghoulies aren’t smart enough to step up and start making their own decisions. They follow whatever Malachi says,” Sweet Pea said.

“Except for Penny,” Fangs chimed in. “Penny lead the group that got Badger last night.”

Penny Peabody was an ex-Serpent lawyer known in her former days as the Snake Charmer for her ability to get the Serpents out of some tight legal spots. However, she was exiled from the Serpents when Jughead was in high school and her alliance to the Ghoulies had been well known. Jughead had played a major part in her ex-communication with the motorcycle club and had gone as far as carving her serpent tattoo out of her arm with a knife. Later, she repaid the favor. After luring Jughead out and leaving him to be beaten to a pulp, thirty to one, she got her own pound of flesh. The scar from that encounter is expertly hidden beneath new ink on his arm, but it was not an experience he would ever forget.

She was a ruthless and heartless bitch. She believed strongly in the idea of ‘an eye for an eye' and used her skills to manipulate people into doing what she wanted. She took personal joy into trying to destroy her victims so that even if they survived, their spirit would be broken.

“Penny could be calling the shots,” Jughead reasoned. “Malachi can’t be everywhere at once and he knows she lives for chaos. I think we need to bring the fight to them, though. Take out as many Ghoulies as we can. We are going have to get Penny out of the picture, then we go for Malachi.”

“What about the Disciples?” Ace questioned.

Jughead thought for a minute. “Fuck the Disciples,” he told them. “We cut ties with them and whatever drug game they are trying to run up there in Seaside isn’t going to be our immediate issue. Sweets, can you let Seaside know whats going on though? I don’t want them to be caught off guard.”

“How soon do you want to do this, boss?” Fangs asked.

Jughead’s phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a message from Betty with a single location on it. With a sinking feeling in his chest, he got up, grabbed his jacket, and headed for the door. “Maybe now, who’s coming?” The group, aside from Dutchie who would take over the task of getting Badger home, moved as a singular unit out of the bar and into the back lot. Within a minute, they were racing to the address Betty had sent.

They pulled into the driveway of the townhouse. The black SUV was still in the driveway. Jughead was already off the bike and through the front door when his phone began to vibrate and then stop. It was Jelly Bean.

“Jug!” Jelly Bean yelled from the kitchen. She ran to her brother. “They took her!”

“Who took her?” He asked through his grit teeth.

“I don’t know. The landlord?”

“What? Why are you even here JB?”

“We went to the store and then we stopped to look at this rental. We were going through the house and I was upstairs. I heard a thud and when I came back down, there was blood and now everyone was gone. I was trying to call you, but you were already here.”

“Do you know what he was driving? Think, JB. We need to find Betty,” he told her, his hands on each of her shoulders.

“I- I don’t know, Jug,” Jelly Bean told her brother. "I don’t remember seeing anything on the street.”

“Shit,” he said. He looked around to the Serpents who had followed him. “They couldn’t have gone far yet. Spread out and put the word out. See if you can find a van or a car or something. Something suspicious.”

The Serpents went back out the door and kicked their bikes to life. They spread out going down the roads and alleyways out of the neighborhood. Sweet Pea hung back and sent out a group text to the other active members.

“JB, go home. Call dad, tell him what happened and then stay at home and lock the doors,” Jughead told her and urged her out of the townhouse.

“You’re going to find her right?” Jelly Bean asked through her own tears.

“That’s the plan,” he said. His eyes had darkened again and he could feel the rage building inside of him. He stayed watching his sister until she had pulled out of the driveway.

“Everyone is looking, boss,” Sweet Pea told him. “But, I don’t think you should go looking alone.”

“Then keep up.”


	27. Chapter 27

Betty woke up in a dark room. Her head was pounding and her vision was blurry. She pulled at her arms, but realized they were bound behind her to the chair she was sitting on, as were her ankles. The rope was biting into her wrists the more she moved and she could feel the burn as it cut deeper into her skin.

Her mouth was dry and had the iron taste of blood in it. She wasn’t even sure what happened but from how bad her head was throbbing, she assumed she had been knocked out. Betty quickly remembered that Jelly Bean had been with her and started to scan around the empty room for her, but she was alone.

She assumed she was in some sort of warehouse building. There were small windows that lined the top of one wall, letting in just enough light that she could see around her. The room itself, was massive, and had roller garage doors on one side and a door that led to some unknown destination on the opposite wall.

Then, the door creaked open and a rough looking dirty blonde came through it, walking towards her slowly. She had an aluminum bat in one hand that she was playfully hitting against her other palm. Penny Peabody.

“Betty Cooper,” she sneered through a fake smile. “Long time, no see.” And then the wind was knocked out of Betty as the bat slammed into her ribs. She wanted to cry or scream but the sound wouldn’t come. Instead she remained tied to the chair and gasping for a breath she couldn’t seem to take.

“Who would have known a Craiglist ad was going to be the easiest way to get you away from your precious Serpents,” Penny chuckled to herself. “I still don’t know what the hell Jughead see’s in you.”

Penny had bent down to look Betty in the eyes as she spoke, but Betty took that opportunity to spit in her face. Penny slowly wiped her face off, smiled, and then came back down on Betty with a punch to her jaw that left her head spinning even more.

“Your little boyfriend is causing problems for the Ghoulies,” Penny went on. Betty watched her from where she was restrained. “In fact, the Serpents have become a roadblock for us. It was easier for us set up in another town than reclaim the Southside from them. So we are just going to start picking you all off, one by one, starting with the King and Queen.”

Penny took a few steps away so that Betty could see two more Ghoulies enter the room behind her, each cracking their knuckles and smiling through rotten teeth. “I’m going to go put my feet up, but my friends here would like to leave a message for your dear boyfriend. It seems its time for a little payback, blondie.”

———————————————————————————————————————

Jughead raced through the Southside, looking for any trace of Betty. Sweet Pea followed behind him, ready to back him up if they should find her before any of the other Serpents. They wove through Ghoulie territory past run down houses, Hysteria, and into the industrial area they supposedly had been doing business in.

If they had been there a split second later, Jughead would have missed the dirty blonde hair of Penny Peabody swinging in the wind as she went into a side door of one of the buildings. Jughead signaled to Sweet Pea and they lapped around the block and killed the engines. If anything, the Ghoulies and Penny would have heard them and assumed they had kept going. Sweet Pea pulled out his phone and dropped a pin for the other Serpents. Soon they would have reinforcements, but in the mean time, it was going to just be the two of them with an unknown amount of Ghoulies inside.

Sneaking back down the alley towards the doorway they had just seen Penny enter into, Jughead and Sweet Pea kept an eye open for stray Ghoulies that may be guarding the area, but in true Ghoulie fashion, they had left their building unprotected. There were no windows in the building except for those that were lining the wall high up above the alley. Jughead and Sweet Pea used crates and junk in the alley way to scramble and pull their way up to where an old fire-escape ladder was still attached to the building.

Peering through the foggy glass, Jughead could make out his small blonde in a chair in the middle of the room. His heart began to race as he desperately wanted to get her out of there.

Two Ghoulies entered the room from a door on the other side of the building. Jughead could feel the heat rising inside him and wanted to yell out, but knew that would do no good. He cringed as one of the Ghoulie reached back and struck her across the face. Blood flew from her mouth as her head hung lifelessly from her shoulders. She slumped in the chair against her ties. The second Ghoulie picked her head up by her hair. The Serpents watched as the second man ran his tongue across the blood running on her cheek. Jughead could feel the rage boiling up from his stomach to his chest.

Sweet Pea had been able to get one of the windows open and motioned for Jughead. It was going to be a tight fit, but he was sure he would be able to squeeze through it. He was more worried though about the drop down into the building. It was still going to be a ten to fifteen foot drop from the window once he was inside. Sweet Pea held his wrists and helped lower him so that he only had to drop down about five feet. He landed with a thud but neither Ghoulie seemed to notice his presence in the warehouse. He backed into the shadows in the corner of the warehouse and waited for his opportunity to strike.


	28. Chapter 28

Consciousness was something that Betty couldn’t seem to hold onto. As soon as she felt she was getting a grip on what was going on around her, another blow to the face would knock her back into the nothingness.

She could feel something dripping down her face and the smell of blood in the stagnant air was strong. Her cheekbone throbbed, shooting pain behind her eyes. The taste of blood in her mouth was stronger than it had been before. Her eyes were on fire, either from tears or blood. She wasn’t sure and she was sure it really didn’t matter.

The door on the opposite side of the room kicked open again and in walked another one of Penny’s henchmen. He was taller than her but still under six feet. His eyes were sunken and his twitched when he opened the knife he was carrying. He ran a greasy thumb over his bottom lip and he approached her. She could feel his eyes on her, looking her up and down.

“Aren’t you pretty, blondie?” He asked. “I but think you are far too overdressed for the party we are going to have for you tonight.”

She could feel the cold of his knife snaking its way under her shirt and she fought against the ropes and he ripped her top open, exposing her. He looked down at her breasts, covered only by a thin lace bra. He looped his finger under the strap, pulling it away from her shoulder and licking his lips at the sight beneath the lace. Unable to fight against the ropes, she spit in his face.

“You stupid fucking bitch,” he spewed before hitting her again across the face.

Betty was overtaken again by the blackness, but not before hearing Jughead’s voice.

“Wrong move, asshole!”

Jughead swung before the Ghoulie had even realized he was there in the shadows. He struck him across the face, knocking him out. Jughead immediately turned to Betty, not knowing how much time they had before the Ghoulies came back in.

“Betts, can you hear me? Wake up, babe,” he pleaded with her. He pulled her bra strap back up and tried to cover her with her tattered shirt. He was knelt down in front of her, cupping her battered face in his hands. “Come on, Betts, I need you to open you eyes.”

It took everything she had to open her eyes. They burned and the pain from the swelling that was already overtaking her lids made it more difficult than she had hoped. “Thank god. I’m so sorry, Betts,” he said, kissing her forehead.

He worked quickly to cut her wrists and ankles free of the ropes. She felt stiff and her wrists were raw and red where the rope had cut into her. Her shoulders ached as she moved them back into a position that was more normal. Jughead slipped an arm under hers and one around her back to help get her to her feet. Her legs were numb and she was shaky for the first few steps, although that may have been due more to the repeated blows to her head than from being tied to a chair.

The sound of motorcycles could be heard in the distance. Jughead realized that while the roaring engines were good news for them, it was also going to alert her captors to their arrival and departure. Jughead led Betty back to the corner hidden by darkness under the window he had dropped in from. He stood between her and the rest of the warehouse, ready for a fight. Betty, realizing she was still fairly exposed, pulled her arms out of her sleeves, turned the t shirt around and tied it together behind her neck. She felt a little less naked now that it was just her back showing and not her entire front. Jughead smirked as he watched her make an outfit out of her torn shirt. He shrugged off his jacket and helped her slip her arms into it. She pulled it around herself like a shield and breathed in the smell of the worn leather and Jughead’s deodorant, making her feel instantly more safe.

The door into the rest of the building swung open and a small army of Ghoulies, led by Penny Peabody, flooded into the warehouse. Luckily, Sweet Pea had been working on the lock to the rolling garage door on the outside of the building as Jughead was freeing Betty from her captors. As it went up, the Ghoulies were blinded by the sudden change in lighting. Waiting for them on the other side of the garage door were twenty Serpents, knives drawn, and ready to fight.

Jughead pressed Betty further into the wall behind him, shielding her with his body. As the Serpents moved into the warehouse as a single strong unit, the Ghoulies stood apart, eyes darting around like the drug fueled wildcards they were. Penny lifted her arm and shot into the air above her.

“Figures the snakes would bring knives to a gunfight,” she laughed. “Ironic since I’m fairly certain you know exactly where our new firepower came from.”

Jughead scanned around the room, realizing the Ghoulies were all armed with the guns they had suppled to the Disciples. He could feel the cool metal of his own gun in the waistband of his pants, but worried about his brothers in arms as he was unaware how many of them were packing today.

A maniacal laugh came from the Ghoulie who had licked the blood from Betty’s cheek. Jughead shuddered at the not so distant memory. The Ghoulie stepped forward from his own group in an effort to throw a punch at one of the Serpents. He missed, giving the Serpent the advantage and knocking him out coldly. The first move started a chain reaction and the two gangs came together in a mess of swinging limbs, knives, brass knuckles, and teeth.

Jughead was worried about a full on gunfight in the small space, but other than Penny, no shots had been fired. Betty stayed shielded behind Jughead, wrapping an arm around his waist as she kept the other one on the wall to steady herself. She fought to keep an eye open so she could try to protect herself from what may be coming their way. Her goal was to guide them out of the warehouse towards the blinding light of the garage doors. She could feel Jughead’s muscles under his shirt tightening with each punch he threw and each time he put his arms up to push back agains the pulsating mob of Ghoulies and Serpents.

Betty had gotten them almost to the garage doors when the gun went off. Everyone paused and dropped a few inches down as the shot echoed through the building. Penny Peabody stood over Ace, gun still aimed at his body. Jughead’s stomach dropped at seeing his old friend being engulfed by the blood pooling on the concrete around him.

The Ghoulies backed towards her from where they had been standing and for the first time since the fight started, the two gangs were separated across the warehouse. Jughead turned, blocking Betty from Penny’s line of sight. With her arms on his back, she felt his own gun in the back band of his pants. Jughead could feel as Betty’s small hands removed the gun from his waistband. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but he felt better about her having something to defend herself.

“Distract her,” Betty whispered behind him. Sweet Pea was only a few feet away. Betty crouched as she moved from behind her boyfriend to another hidden space behind Sweet Pea. Seeing Ace there on the ground had stirred something in Betty, giving her new strength. Jughead could sense she had a plan and stepped towards Penny, ready to provide a distraction.

“This is between you and I, Penny,” Jughead said. “There’s no reason to bring everyone else into it.”

“Shut the fuck up, Jones,” Penny spit back at him. “This is beyond you or I. You and your Serpents are just a speed bump for us. I should have finished you off when you were a kid. I’m not going to make that mistake again.”

Jughead could see Betty moving throughout the crowd, hugging the walls and crouched low. She was so much smaller than most of the men in the room, she moved fairly unnoticed.

“What would Malachi think?” He questioned her. “I mean, I would think he would want to finish me off himself. My guess is that he was just using you to draw me out, and here I am.”

Betty had a clear shot from where she had settled herself down on her haunches near Fangs. She leaned into his legs to steady herself, remembering the lessons FP had given her before she had gone off to college. Alice was against firearms, but FP had given Betty her first handgun, along with a quick gun safety course and some shooting practice, before packing it away with the things she was taking with her to college. Penny had raised her gun again, now directing it directly at Jughead’s forehead.

“Malachi can’t control me, Sweetheart,” Penny sneered. She cocked the gun back. “This is just the beginning of the slaughter, Jones. I’m not going to waste any more of my time.”

“Now,” Fangs whispered to Betty who was crouched down next to him. She pulled the trigger and Penny collapsed backwards into her thugs, blood flowing from the shot in her chest and soaking through her shirt. Betty’s hands began to shake and Jughead’s gun suddenly weighed much more than it had moments before. All sense of bravery that had taken over her a few moments before had dissipated. Shock began to sink in and the scene around her began to blur.

Confusion set in on both sides of the fight. Fists began to fly again as the two sides came crashing into each other. Fangs gave Betty a hand up and pushed her back into the wall, helping her avoid a Ghoulie being tossed through the crowd. Betty shakily tucked Jughead’s gun into her own waistband and kept snaking her way against the wall, trying to get to the garage doors. She wasn’t a killer but she knew what she had just done in order to save Jughead. She wanted to vomit.

She felt her head snap back and she fell to the ground. Someone had a hold of her pony tail. She fought to get their fingers free so she wasn’t being pulled further across the concrete. Then, the pulling and dragging stopped as she looked up as Jughead’s fist landed against the hair-puller’s temple. He reached and arm down to her, still looking around at the chaos. The Ghoulies were dropping or fleeing and without Penny, the Ghoulies had no one to look to or tell them what to do next. Malachi kept them all in the dark, and for that, Jughead was happy. Leadership was not a common trait for the strung out gang.

Jughead led Betty out of the warehouse and they continued down the alley for a block until they got to where Jughead had left his bike. She was gasping for air and everything was spinning. She imagined Penny’s face as the bullet struck and collapsed down to the asphalt and vomited. She continued to retch as Jughead crouched behind her, running his hand up and down her back. Once there was nothing left, she wiped her mouth and took a few deep breaths of the cooling late summer air.

“God, Betts, I’m so sorry,” he said. Kissing her on the forehead and lingering as she fell into him. “Are you okay? What hurts?”

“Right now, everything,” she told him. He hated that this was because of him and the Serpents and that she had been caught in the crosshairs. He wanted nothing more than to get her out of there and away from all of this.“Can we just go?” She pleaded.

“Gladly,” he told her. He got onto the bike, offering her a hand as she carefully climbed onto the back.He handed her his helmet and pulled his bandana over his face. He could hear the sound of other motorcycles starting in the distance, signaling that the fight was over for today and a party would start at the Whyte Wyrm soon to celebrate. He knew they would have to make an appearance at some point tonight, but for the time being, he turned towards Northside and drove them to the Cooper-Jones family home.


	29. Chapter 29

Jelly Bean had called FP on her way back to the house. He wasn’t surprised when the calls began coming in over the radio for the turf war unfolding on the Southside. FP had sent his deputies out on the calls, knowing his own affiliation with the Serpents would make that the last place he wanted to be if he could avoid it. Instead, he sat drinking stale coffee at his desk and waited for a call from Jughead. If he hadn’t heard anything by the time the deputies got back, he would reach out to the club. As if Jughead could sense his father’s concern, FP’s phone began to vibrate on his desk.

**_Jughead:_ ** _The Snake Charmer has been handled._

**_FP:_ ** _You make it out ok?_

**_Jughead:_ ** _Better than Betty. At the house now._

FP cringed reading Jughead’s last text. She was as much her daughter as Jelly Bean was and he felt responsible for her, even if she was an adult. She had gotten sucked into the Serpent drama when they were teens and for the most part, Jughead had followed his father’s warnings and kept her as far from the darker sides of it as he could. He knew that she was too good of a person at her core to have been swept up with the club without Jughead’s influence. As much as he loved his son, he worried about his bonus daughter. While FP had never wanted them to break up, he had always been secretly happy that she had been able to get out and away from the club, even if it did lead to Jughead’s downward spiral for some time.

______________________________________________________________________________

Betty was feeling drained physically and emotionally. Getting back to the house had been her only focus on the ride there, but she was ready to collapse by the time Jughead pulled into the driveway. She leaned into him as he led her into the house. He could sense her exhaustion and swept her up into his arms and carried her up the stairs to their room. He set her down on the bed and bent down to take off her shoes before tossing them towards the closet.

She laid back on the bed, closing her eyes momentarily before the pain in her head began pounding again. Jughead had already gotten up, turned on the shower, and come back with a glass of water and some pain medicine. She happily accepted them and gulped them down, letting the cool water soothe her raw throat.

Jughead had already removed his shirt and pants and reached out to her to help ease her towards the bathroom. She walked to the sink, pulling out her toothbrush and tried to get the taste of blood and bile out of her mouth. As she wiped her mouth, Jughead stood behind her, brushing her hair away from her neck and undoing the knot she had tied in her ripped shirt. They stared at each other in the mirror with Jughead’s arms around her and resting on her stomach and his face nuzzled into her neck.

“I’m so sorry, Betts,” he told her. “This is my fault you got dragged into it.”

“Well, its not how I had planned to spend my day,” she told him trying to laugh it off but failing, turning in his arms and looking up at him through her swollen eye the best she could. “But you and the Serpents are a packaged deal. I knew that going into it. And as much as I hate to say it, I’m going to have to know what is going on with the Serpents if you want me to be ready for whatever may be coming this way. This,” she motioned to her face, “can’t happen again.”

Jughead was afraid to tell her about the dealings with the Serpents, both because these jobs were not as safe as the small time ones they use to agree to when she was an active member and also because he was ashamed of the gun trade he had gotten them into.

“You know I don’t want you any more involved than you have to be,” he told her, pleading her with his eyes to take back what she was asking.

“Jug,” she told him, looking up and piercing him with her glassy, blue eyes, “I killed someone today. I’m already more involved than either of us wants me to be. I’m a murderer.”

His heart sank. She had killed Penny Peabody and he hadn’t stopped her. He had gone along with her plan from the time she took his gun out of his waistband.

“You were trying to protect me,” he reasoned with her. He didn’t want her to think that way. She was his sweet, kind Betty, not a cold blooded killer. “It was defense.”

“And you wouldn’t have needed protecting if you weren’t being held at gunpoint after I asked you to distract her. It sucks, but what I did today was as much for you as it was revenge for me,” she told him quietly, sinking back into his arms and resting her forehead on his chest. She hadn’t wanted to admit it out loud, but now that she had, she knew she had wanted to pull the trigger and she hated herself for it. He could feel her tears running down his hardened, barren chest. He leaned down, kissing her head, removing what clothing they had left, and pulled her into the hot shower, hoping to wash away what ever guilt they were both feeling.

The water soaked through his black curls and he let it wash the dirt and sweat from his face before he turned their bodies to allow the water run down Betty’s back. She leaned her head back, letting the water coat her hair. Jughead wet a clean washcloth and turned her so she was looking up at him as he cleaned the dried blood off her face as gently as he could. She had taken care of him so many times before and it was his turn to finally take care of her. He watched as the water running down her body turned from a rust color back to clear.

Using her vanilla body wash, he ran the washcloth down the back of her neck and to her shoulders, arms, and chest. She began to loosen up and she leaned into him, absorbing the heat from his body and the water soaking her from the shower head. He carefully continued to wash down her body, making note of the bruises that had already began to form on her ribs and stomach. He gently moved over the raw areas of her wrists where the ropes had cut into her before bringing her hands to his mouth to kiss them.

Jughead picked up her berry scented shampoo and began working his hands through her hair, gently aware of bruises that he may not be able to easily see.

“I can do that, Jug,” she told him. He brushed her fingers away and continued to work the shampoo into a lather.

“I know you can,” he told her, smiling to himself. “Its my turn to take care of you, Betts.”

She relaxed a little, enjoying the feeling of his fingers in her hair. He leaned her back into the water so he could rinse the lather from her hair. She wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into him, enjoying the feeling of being pampered. He moved onto the conditioner and worked it through her hair before rinsing it the same way.

He finished washing himself quickly before turning off the shower and wrapping Betty in a fluffy white towel. He wrapped his own towel around his waist and lead her back out to the bedroom where he turned down the comforter and urged her to climb in. He handed her the remote for the small television on their dresser and told her to pick something as he went back to the bathroom. She had put on some home-improvement show and was propped up on the pillows against the headboard when he returned with lotion and her brush. She lifted an eyebrow at him as he settled onto the bed behind to her.

He pulled her towards him and gently began brushing the tangles from her hair, kissing her neck as he sectioned out her hair. He braided her wet hair in a loose braid and laid it over her shoulder.

“Jughead Jones, when did you learn to braid?” She questioned him.

“From your mom,” he told her, sheepishly. “Jelly Bean needed help with her hair and Alice taught me how to do a few things since she had to work early some days and couldn’t help her.” Betty laughed a little at the thought of Jughead sitting at the kitchen counter and fumbling with Jelly Bean’s hair as Alice supervised with a watchful eye.

Jughead warmed up some of Betty’s vanilla scented lotion in his hands before he started working it into the skin of her shoulders, down her arms, and into her small hands. “You’re really going all out,” she told him, relaxing back into him. “Maybe I should get my ass kicked more often.”

“Well, I do owe you my life,” he told her. “And please don’t. I don’t think I can handle seeing you like that.”

He continued massaging the lotion into her skin moving from her back, carefully along her ribs and stomach, and then down each leg before spending some extra time on each of her feet. “Have I told you how beautiful you are today?” he asked. She was aware of how bruised and battered her face were and wasn’t feeling as beautiful as she normally did in his presence. “Because I should be thanking you everyday for the rest of my life for coming back for me. For taking me back, Betts.”

He looked up at her as he massaged lotion into her feet, his green eyes lightening up the softened look he was giving her through his sharp features. She loved that she was able to see him without his normal walls up.

He began his crawl back up the bed, but she put her hand in his hair when he was about mid thigh. She smiled sweetly at him and he shot her a smirk as he let her push his head down between her legs. “I can think of another way you can thank me right now.”

Betty was almost embarrassed by her sudden confidence but she was feeling incredibly turned on and bold, either from the attention he was giving her or from her subconscious working through the shock from the events of earlier today. Either way, Betty settled back into the pillows as Jughead tossed both of her legs over his shoulders and began teasing her bundle of nerves with his tongue.

She squirmed beneath him with every hot breath he let out onto her essence. Her fingers tangled in his hair, anchoring her to the bed while he encircled her clit with his tongue. He continued to devour her as he glided two fingers into her heat and began stroking her from deep within. He lapped up her wetness, sucking gently on her bud. He could feel her tensing against him and he reached his free hand up to hold her thigh tight against him.

“Fuck—Juggie—,” she breathed out, tossing her head against the pillows and arching back as she came undone against his mouth. He could feel her thighs quivering next to his face as her fingers relaxed from his hair. Betty was breathing heavy as she reached for him, urging him up to her. She kissed him deeply, tasting herself on his mouth and deepening the kiss as she opened her mouth to his. He hovered over her with an elbow resting on the bed on either side of her head. She reached down and pulled his towel away and began stroking his length. She could feel his breathing quicken.

“I don’t want to hurt you, Betts,” he told her as he continued to grow harder in her grasp.

“I need you, Jug,” she told him before reaching up to crush her lips against his again. “Right. Now.”

He moved his right arm down and hitched up her left leg under the knee as she positioned his member at her entrance. He plunged into her heat, letting her sheath him. She let out a quick moan as he filled her. He smirked and plunged into her again, enjoying the little noises she made as she took all of him in.

Betty arched her back, pinching her nipple with one hand, and rubbing herself with the other. She spread her knees wider as he continued to pump into her, allowing him more access to her mound. Using his cock, Jughead worked through every emotion he had felt for her in the last twenty-four hours. Unlike their normal lovemaking, this was more carnal and he felt like an animal pounding into her. He could feel her begin to tense around him. She was close.

“Come for me, Betts,” he pleaded as he continued to slam into her. Those words were all it took for Betty to begin to pulsate around him as she moaned “Jug!”

At the sound of his name, he began to come undone and flooded her with his own orgasm. Collapsing on top of her, Jughead was careful to not put too much of his weight on her or her injuries. Instead, he rolled over onto his back as he continued to catch his breath and pulled her onto his chest. Her fingers traced invisible shapes on his skin as she began to close her eyes and doze off.

“I love you, Betts,” he told her.

“I love you too,” she whispered, her eyes fluttering closed, unable to keep them awake any longer. He pulled the comforter up over them before falling asleep.

——————————————————————————————————————

Jughead woke up to the sound of a car door slamming. He looked over to the nightstand where his phone was. It was dark outside and his phone read 9:30 PM. Betty was still asleep on the pillow next to him. He had gotten up a few hours ago to get a glass of water and had brought up a bag of frozen peas. He had wrapped them in a towel and gently placed them over Betty’s swollen eye. Looking at her now, he could see the peas had thawed but her eye had looked much less puffy and angry as it had, but the bruising wasn’t going to be something she could easily cover up.

“Jug! Betty! You here?” FP called up the stairs.

Jughead pulled on his boxers and stepped into the hall, careful as to not wake Betty.

“Yeah,” he called down quieter to his dad. “Betty’s asleep.”

FP walked up the stairs towards his own room, undoing his Sheriff’s uniform top as he went. Jughead followed him into his room. FP continued to switch into his civilian clothes and pulled a dark gray and black flannel shirt on over his white t-shirt.

“Hows she holding up?” FP asked, absently looking down the hallway to where she and Jughead’s room was, concerned for the girl he considered a daughter.

“She’s pretty banged up,” Jughead told him, rubbing a hand across the back of his neck. “They did a number to her. The swelling is going down in her face, but she’s pretty bruised up. I don’t even want to think about what they would have done if we hadn’t gotten there when we did.” He changed the subject. “Penny shot Ace. He’s gone.”

FP’s face dropped hearing that his old friend was gone. He had had to say goodbye to a handful of friends in the time that he was a Serpent, but it never made it easier for FP.

“I’ll check in on his wife. You make sure the Serpents take care of her. You know the rules.”

“I will dad. I’m glad no one else ended up getting shot though. Especially with this shit with the Disciples.”

“What do you mean?”

“Disciples were reselling our guns to the Ghoulies in exchange for drugs and expansion of their territory. We were lucky. They were armed but none of them were dumb enough to pull a gun.”

“Fucking shit. Do the Seaside Serpents know?”

“We called as soon as we found out. We cut ties with the Disciples obviously. We just need to get Malachi out of the picture so we can fix this Ghoulie problem. They’re too strung out to attack on their own. With him gone, they should just disappear back into what ever junkie shit hole they crawled out of.”

“I saw on the report at the station that Penny didn’t make it out. I should have killed her years ago,” FP told him. “She has been a pain in the Serpents’ ass for the last ten years. You did good, son.”

“It wasn’t me,” Jughead told him. He looked back down the hall towards his room, rubbing his hand behind his neck as he did when he was nervous. “She had me at gunpoint. And Betty had mine—”

“Jug—,” FP said, looking at his son with concern. “Don’t tell me Betty did it.”

“What do you want me to say then?” Jughead asked, anger flaring up in him again before it extinguished with a look from his father’s gaze. “I’m not happy about it either but it happened.”

“Shit, is she okay?” FP asked, concerned. “This is way beyond breaking and entering and the petty theft she got sucked into before, Jug. This is serious.”

“She’s working through it,” Jughead said. He blushed a little, thinking about how she had decided to deal with her emotions earlier. “She was worse earlier, but she seems better right now. I’m sure its going to come and go in waves.”

“You better help her through it then. That girl loves you,” FP told him. “She went through hell today for the club and killed for them. Killed for you,” he said, pointing a finger at Jughead’s chest. “That’s more than the rest of the old ladies in the club.”

“Trust me, I know,” Jughead ran a hand through his black hair. “My biggest concern is keeping her safe, especially with Malachi still on the loose. He knows he can use her against me.”

“You know what you need to do then,” FP confirmed. “Jelly Bean is at her friend’s tonight. Sweet Pea put out the good news to the members and I’m assuming we will be celebrating Ace. I’m headed over to the Wyrm.”

“I don’t know if I’m going to make an appearance,” Jughead told him.

“You’re the King now, Jug,” FP told him. “These are your people, your family. They need to know we came out on top today and we need to celebrate our fallen brother.”

“I know,” Jughead confirmed. “I just worry about Betty. I don’t want to push her.”

“They know what went down today. No one is going to question her, son,” FP told him. He slipped on his jacket and started down the stairs. “I’ll see you there. Long live the queen!”


	30. Chapter 30

Jughead pulled the black SUV into the full parking lot of the Whyte Wyrm close to eleven. The tires crunched on the gravel as he parked near a row of bikes closest to the back door.

“We really don’t have to go in, Betts,” he told her, his thumb running across her knuckles. “I don’t want to stress you out."

She leaned over and kissed him on the lips quickly. “We are already out of bed, Jug. We might as well go in. And if it gets to be too much, I’ll tell you. I promise.”

She was handling the events of the day surprisingly well, with her mood being much more even after a long nap, but Jughead could see she was painting on the perfect, girl-next-door smile she had faked for more of her life than he cared to admit. Jughead got out of the SUV and opened her door for her as she finished touching up her pink lipstick in the mirror, careful to skip over the split in her lip. She pulled her own Serpent jacket around her tighter as she laced her fingers with his.

He opened the back door and they stepped inside and were greeted with cheers, hands clapping on their shoulders, and warm side hugs as they walked through the crowd. He looked down at Betty, making sure she was still holding strong with her decision to come inside despite the attention being on her. She hugged into his side, smiling at their friends and pulled him over to the bar. “I’m going to need a drink,” she told him.

They each ordered a drink from Hog Eye, one of the older Serpents who bartended when Toni wasn’t on shift. Betty looked around, hoping to spot her pink haired friend. It didn’t take long to see her dancing with Joaquin as Sweet Pea watched her. Toni had joked she had always had a 60/40% split when it came to her preference of women over men, but looking at the way Sweet Pea was watching her dance told Betty that the 40% may prevail tonight.

They were across the bar near a pool table that was occupied by Fangs, Dutchie, and Badger. Betty pulled her Serpent King over towards them, secretly happy that she could hide in the corner surrounded by them instead of being on display where the entire bar could see her.

“Holy shit, Betty!” Toni exclaimed, launching herself at Betty. “What did you do? Take on the Ghoulies alone?” She asked, forcing Betty to turn her head from side to side as she took in the bruises.

“Only until her back-up arrived,” Jughead said, leaning down and planting a kiss on her mouth. Betty reached up to wipe the pink lipstick that was now staining his lips. He decided to change the subject, not wanting anyone to bring up any of the details from today. “Who’s playing?” He asked as he started to rack up the balls on the pool table.

Toni and Betty were perched on stools near the pool table, giggling and sipping on drinks that were way too pink to be normally served at the biker bar. Jughead was sure Hog Eye had rolled his eyes at Toni when she ordered them. Joaquin excused himself to go meet his boyfriend but gave Betty a tight hug before leaving. He knew better than to bring Kevin to the Wyrm tonight. Jughead and Sweet Pea ran the pool table on Badger and Fangs, making $20 off their bet.

Dutchie arrived with a tray of shots for the group. To the outside world, it looked like an average night in a dive bar with friends. Jughead knew he would have to address the Serpents sooner or later and hoped that the liquid encouragement supplied by Dutchie would be enough to get him through the quick speech.

FP clapped a hand on Jughead’s shoulder after downing the last shot. “You ready to address your people?” He questioned through laughs. He knew how much Jughead hated public speaking but it was part of the job. FP lead him over to the small stage in the corner of the bar and picked up the microphone.

“I just want to welcome you all to the Wyrm tonight,” FP told the crowd, eliciting a cheer from the rowdy bunch. “As you know, we have had some difficult times over the past few weeks, but today, we were able to take a step in the right direction. Your King and Queen put themselves on the lines for you today!”

There was another loud cheer from the crowd as FP urged Jughead to step forward. FP handed the mic over to Jughead. He straightened up and put his shoulders back before looked out over the crowd who continued to cheer as he stepped onto the stage. A switched flipped in him and for the moment, he took on his Serpent King persona.

“The Ghoulies have been overstepping their territory. They have been threatening our members and their families. They have attacked us and our homes. And it needs to stop,” he told the crowd, eliciting more cheers. “They brought their drug dens to Riverdale and they are threatening to spread out far as we are willing to let them. But we aren’t going to roll over and sacrifice the Southside, our home, and let them keep picking us off one by one.After today, we are one step closer to pushing the Ghoulies out of the Southside. We may be calling on you in the next few weeks. Know we are all putting in our time. I wouldn’t ask you to do anything I wouldn’t do myself,” he promised them. “But we lost a good man today and I would be dishonoring his memory if I didn’t bring it up tonight. I would ask you all please raise your glass to honor Ace, our fallen soldier. It wasn’t in vain, brother. The Serpents are a family and we have to stay strong. In unity there is strength!”

“In unity there is strength!” Yelled the crowd before everyone tossed back their drinks.

Jughead stepped off the stage and over to his Serpent Queen, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and kissing her on the mouth, careful to not put too much pressure on the split she was babying. He could taste tequila on her breath and could feel her sway against him.

“You doing okay?” He asked. “We can go whenever you want.”

“I’m fine, Juggie,” she told him, giggling. She was drunk. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “Come dance with me.”

“I am no where near drunk enough for that, Betts,” he told her, planting another kiss on her lips as she smiled up at him. She continued sipping on her drink until Jughead switched her to water. Jughead held her in his arms as they watched their friends shoot pool, do shots, and dance to the music pumping through the bar. Despite the day they were having, Jughead and Betty were happy and enjoying a night surrounded by friends.

“Hey Jug,” Betty looked up at him. “You ready to go home?”

“I was ready before we even got here.”

———————————————————————————————————————

Jughead woke up to the warm glow of the morning sun pouring through their window. He looked down to the beautiful blonde woman curled into his arm who was softly snoring. It was the end of August and Jelly Bean would be starting school again in a few days. The weather was getting cooler than it had been and it was raining more days than it wasn’t. Soon the leaves would start changing colors. He wanted to stay in this moment forever, but life just kept moving forward.

He watched Betty as she slept. He couldn’t believe he had gone years without her here with him and wanted nothing more than to wake up next to her for the rest of his life. He breathed her in, a mix of berries and vanilla. She lit up every room she walked into and he was tired of living in the dark.

“Have you been up long?” Betty said, stretching and looking around the room. “What time is it?”

“Only for a little bit,” he told her. “Its ten. Archie texted and asked if I wanted to go with him to the gym.”

“Well, don’t let me keep you,” she said, rolling back into the pillows.

“Are you forgetting about something happening in an hour you’re suppose to be at?” He asked. “Maybe a wedding planning brunch with Veronica?”

“Crap!” Betty exclaimed. “You’re right. I totally forgot,” she told him scrambling out of bed and over to the closet to find something Veronica would approve of. She had her hand on a navy wrap dress and made her way into the bathroom. “Shit Jug, my face. What am I going to tell Veronica?”

“Maybe she won’t notice? Really, its not as bad as it was. I’ll text Archie and just tell him I’m going to meet him at his apartment. That way I can drop you off and pick you up. I still don’t want you going anywhere alone, Betts. I don’t think I could go through another ordeal where you go missing or end up hurt.”

“Understood,” she told him as she came out of the bathroom and kissed him briefly before going back to the closet to find shoes.

“Betts, you look beautiful,” he told her.

“You sure I don’t look like Quasimodo with this eye? I tried to cover up what I could.”

“Don’t even worry about it. It doesn’t look nearly as bad as it did yesterday,” he promised her. Jughead pulled on a black zip up and matching running shoes before grabbing an empty water bottle off the dresser. “Ready?”

They pulled into the apartment parking lot right on time. Jughead insisted on walking Betty up to the apartment, which was a request she wasn’t entirely against under the current circumstances with the motorcycle club.

“Betty, what the hell happened to your face?!” Veronica exclaimed after opening the door. “You should see the other guy,” Betty joked. Jughead sternly looked down at her, not knowing if she was talking about Penny or just using an age old saying to play off the bruising. No one needed to know she pulled the trigger. That was a crime he would never let her go down for, no matter how many witnesses there were.

Veronica pulled her deeper into the apartment as Archie and Jughead said their goodbyes and went to the gym. Betty was met by a full brunch buffet spread across their kitchen table. Her eyes gazed over the waffles, fruit, sausage, eggs, and hash browns that had been prepared for her.

“How many people are you expecting, V?” Betty asked.

“Just you and I,” Veronica assured her. “I mean, the boys will be back later and we both know Jughead will probably finish off whatever is left.”

Veronica poured each of them a mimosa and Betty carried her plate of food to the living room where Veronica had books and magazines spread out everywhere. For the next hour, they went over colors, invitations, flowers, music, and the guest list. Betty took notes on Veronica’s must haves for her wedding and began working on the timeline for the next few months of planning. Betty had always enjoyed planning a party and a wedding for her two friends was a project she wanted to throw herself into. Mary Andrews had already thrown the couple an engagement party, so Betty began working on the bridal shower and bachelorette party.

“Have you started registering for gifts yet?” Betty asked.

“I brought it up with Archie, but the only thing he was concerned with was that we get a new blender,” Veronica told her. “Want to make it a B and V day tomorrow and go register for wedding presents with me?”

“I have to work the next two days, but what about Friday? I could do Friday,” Betty assured her.

“Its a date!” Veronica exclaimed, clapping with each word to add emphasis. “Oh. My. God. I didn’t even tell you! We found a house!”

“That’s great, V,” Betty told her. “Where is it? What does it look like?”

“Its a new construction between the North and Southside. There’s a whole new little neighborhood there. It has a little park in the middle of the neighborhood with basketball courts. The location is just perfect. Archie will be close to the gym and I’m not too far from work either.”

“Did it meet all of your slightly insane requirements?” Betty asked, hinting at the ocean view Veronica had previously demanded despite Riverdale being a land locked town.

“Oh never, but its a four bedroom, two and a half bath with a two car garage and a fenced yard. And that’s perfect because Archie can’t seem to stop talking about wanting to start a family or get a dog. I figure we will need a fence for either option,” Veronica told her.

“That sounds perfect, Ronnie,” Betty told her friend. “I’m really glad you guys finally found something. When do you move in?”

“All the paperwork should be done and we should have keys in by the end of September at the latest. I’m so excited. We can finally have everyone over for the holidays and host our own parties without worrying what the landlord thinks,” Veronica gushed.

Betty was really happy for her friends, but part of her was still mad at herself for falling for the trap with the apartment listing she had taken Jelly Bean to that had led to her momentary disfiguration. She loved being at the house with Jug, JB, and FP, but she missed having her own quiet place of solitude.

———————————————————————————————————————

Archie hit the punching bag again, knocking it back as Jughead steadied it for him. Archie took a step back, removing his glove. “I need a breather for a minute,” Archie told him before taking three huge gulps of water from his bottle. “You sure you don’t want to throw a few punches?” Archie asked.

Jughead looked down at his bruised knuckles, flexing and curling his hands back into a fist, feeling the dull pain as the skin stretched over his joints. “I’m good man. I think I’m gonna hit the weights though if you want to spot me.”

“For sure,” Archie told him. The two walked to the weights and Jughead began adding weights to the bar before settling down on the bench with Archie positioned above him and ready to spot.

“Jug,” Archie said, carefully. “Are we going to talk about what happened to Betty’s face?”

“She got caught up in something she shouldn’t have,” Jug told him, working hard to not meet Archie’s eyes as he answered.

“And you’re okay with that? She looks like hell, man,” Archie scolded him.

“Hell no, I’m not okay with it,” Jughead shot back, sitting up and leaving the weights on the rack. His words began to flood out of his mouth. “In no way would I ever be okay with anyone laying a hand on her. I think about her and worry about her every minute of every day. I didn’t want her to get thrown back into the Serpents the way she did, but it happened and all I can do now is keep her as safe as I can.”

“I know you don’t want her hurt, Jug. I just wish we would have known before you guys walked in and she looked like that. I’m sure Veronica gave her hell for a while. I don’t need, or even want to know, any of the details around what happened, but I just wanted to make sure she was okay. She’s had a rough go the last month.”

“She’s good at speaking up for herself, Arch,” Jughead promised. “I’m taking every precaution I can when it comes to her with the Serpents. I know she’s been through a lot recently, I just want to make things easier on her if I can.”

“Do you think she suspects anything, you know, with your master plan?” Archie asked, a smile creeping across his face.

“Definitely not,” he smirked back. “And it needs to stay that way so Veronica better not ruin this for me.”

“She won’t. I stressed her need for discretion and I may have threatened her with getting a puppy that would ruin her new white carpets if she did. I think she should have Betty busy with wedding stuff for at least two more hours.”

“Good, because I need to go meet someone in about twenty minutes. Then I’ll be back to pick you up and we can go back to the apartment.”

“I’ll be here,” Archie assured him.


	31. Chapter 31

The next few days blurred together for Betty. She would get up in the morning for her shifts at the hospital, go to work, get asked about her bruised eye about a hundred times, go home, sleep, and then repeat. For the most part, her co-workers hadn’t said much about her eye to her face, but she could feel the stares she got from them. Harper told her over lunch that a few of the guys in radiology had seen her get on the back of Jughead’s bike and ride off last week and people had assumed the worst.

“He comes off as being this big, scary, biker guy I guess,” Betty told her. “But he’s a huge softy. He would never hurt me.”

“I’m glad I don’t have to go threaten to kick his ass then,” Harper told her. Betty chucked at the image that presented in her head, unsure if Harper could hurt a fly.

With everyone getting ready for school to start up again, the emergency department had been a little busier than it had been the week before. Families were back from vacations which meant more people coming through the hospital doors. Betty finished her orientation early and was able to start picking up more shifts. Betty was scheduled two shifts a week for the next month, giving her part time hours at the least. She still had some savings left and Jughead rarely let her pay for anything, but she was happy she had some steady income coming in to pad her bank account.

She and Jughead had fallen into a rhythm over the last few days where they would get up early before her shift, he would make breakfast and then drive her to work, she would be at work all day, and then he would pick her up from work and he would have dinner waiting when she got home. During the day he was working out with Archie, dealing with day to day happenings with the Serpents, or catching up on chores around the house. FP worked long hours and with Jelly Bean back in school, Jughead took over some of the household chores Alice had once been in charge of. Jughead was doing laundry, making meals, and doing the grocery shopping, much to Betty’s, and FP’s, surprise.

“Hey I can pull my weight around here too,” he told his father over dinner one night. “I feel like I should be offended in your utter lack of confidence in my ability to adult.”

“Well, I’m proud of you, son,” FP assured him. “I don’t know what has gotten into you, but I’m glad it has. And I’m glad you’ve figured out how to do more than heat up pizza rolls in the oven.”

Betty was exhausted when Friday rolled around, but she hadn’t forgotten her promise to Veronica. Betty had gotten up and dressed just before Veronica had shown up at the front door. “Hey V, I’m almost ready,” Betty told her.

“And where is your bodyguard for the day?” Veronica asked, looking around the living room.

Jughead still wanted Betty to have an escort and he was busy with the Serpents today, so the women were surprised when the doorbell rang and found Dutchie smiling and holding a coffee for each of them.

“The boss sent me for your girls day,” Dutchie told her before letting himself in. “You won’t even know I’m here.”

“Well, this should be interesting,” Veronica said under her breath as she eyed the party boy. Veronica had never been Dutchie’s biggest fan but she agreed that he was probably better than some of the better options Jughead could have sent.

“Thank you for coming Dutchie,” Betty told him. “We appreciate you taking time out of your day to escort us.”

“What in the world are you wearing?” Veronica asked, looking him up and down. Dutchie was dressed in a red Hawaiian shirt open over a Corona t-shirt and cargo shorts with Chuck Tailor sneakers on his feet. His hair was, as normal, a mess.

“I’m undercover Miss V,” he told her, smiling so large that his eyes closed. “The boss told me to not make it obvious that I was a Serpent on guard duty.”

Veronica rolled her eyes before driving the three to one of her favorite home goods stores in the area. With the new house and wedding all happening within months of each other, Veronica had decided to focus mainly on registering on gifts she could use in the new house.

“Betty, we both know I do not cook well, so Archie is counting on you to help me register for useful and needed kitchen items. Then, we can move onto the other things like linens and bathroom necessities,” Veronica told them.

Betty took control of the scanner and began working her way through the large kitchen section, scanning items she would want in her own kitchen. Veronica focused on picking out new silverware and dishes. Dutchie hung back by Betty, turning on a playlist on his phone and letting it play from his pocket.

“Boss said I’m not to let you out of my sight,” he told her.

“I appreciate it,” she told him. “I just hope you don’t get too bored.”

“Nah, I like to shop and I’m probably more help than you think. I do most of the baking at our place, if you know what I mean,” he said, winking at Betty. Betty chuckled back at him. She thought about the trailer he lived in with Badger and Fangs and decided it would probably make for a great TV show.

She continued scanning items and helped Veronica pick between two different sets of silverware she couldn’t decide between.

“I can’t believe Jug sent that one,” Veronica said under her breath to Betty. Betty looked over to Dutchie who was currently dancing in the aisle to a LMFAO song playing from his pocket. Betty hadn’t ever really considered Dutchie in a fight, but she trusted that Jug knew what he was doing.

“He’s not so bad,” Betty told her friend. “I kind of like having him around to break up the tension.”

Dutchie picked up a candle on a nearby shelf and took a long sniff.

“Whoa, Veronica,” he called to her. “You’ve got to get this one. It smells like Fireball!”

Veronica rolled her eyes, “Us nonalcoholics like to call that scent cinnamon, Dutchie.”

Betty picked up one of the candles and decided she would buy it for Dutchie as a gift for hanging out with them all day. She spent the rest of the trip keeping Veronica occupied with registering for gifts and making sure Dutchie kept his distance from her. Bridezilla did not need to make an appearance today.

———————————————————————————————————————

“We got word from Seaside that Malachi is on the move,” Sweet Pea told the group converged in the conference room. “Seaside thinks he is coming back here since Penny is out of the picture and the Ghoulies had scattered after the fight.”

“I want to know the moment he is back. We need to get guys watching every road in and out of town,” Jughead ordered.

“What’s the plan?” Fangs asked. “Once he’s back.”

“I don’t know yet,” Jughead told them. “I’m open to suggestions.”

“He needs to suffer,” Badger said. “For what he did to Toni, and Ace, and me, and Betty.”

“I don’t disagree with that,” Jughead said, his eyes turning a deep shade of emerald. “We need to intercept him when he gets to town. Find out where the drug labs are and let FP know. The police can handle that part of our problem while we handle Malachi. Sweets, do we still have that cabin on the outskirts of Greendale?”

“Sure do, Boss,” Sweet Pea confirmed. “I don’t think anyone has been out there in years though. Want me to take a ride out there and check it out.”

“Take someone with you and get it ready for our guest of honor,” Jughead told him. “I think we may need to take a camping trip once Malachi shows up.”

Sweet Pea spent the next hour on the phone, setting up Serpents to watch all the entry and exit points of the town. He and Fangs loaded up and rode out to the cabin in Greendale to make sure it was good to use. Jughead called and talked to FP to let him know the tentative plan.

“I’ll let you know where and when to do the drug bust but leave Malachi to me,” Jughead told his father.

“I’ll take care of what I need to on my end, Jug,” FP assured him. “But after what he did to Betty, I’m not sure I can let you have all the fun.”

“I can be sure to leave a few hits in him for you, dad,” Jughead promised.

Jughead hung up the phone with his father before telling Badger he needed to go run some errands. Badger nodded in agreement and went back to helping Toni unload a shipment of beer. Jughead got on his bike and made his way across town.

———————————————————————————————————————

“Everything seems to be in order Mr. Jones,” the middle aged brunette assured him as he sat in the stiff chair at the bank. She snuck looks at his leather Serpent jacket as she finished up his paperwork. “We just need a few more signatures from you.”

Jughead felt like he had been signing paperwork for the last hour. The loan officer excused herself after his last signature to go make copies for his records. His phone vibrated in his pocket.

**_Betts:_ ** _Almost done here. No bad guys looking for napkin rings or gravy boats today. See you at home?_

**_Jug:_ ** _I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just finishing up here. Love you._

**_Betts:_ ** _Can’t wait. Love you more._

He was glad she was heeding his warning and being safe, even if it meant Dutchie tagging along for wedding duties. Until Malachi was gone and the Ghoulies had dissipated, Jughead was going to stay cautious. Aside from a few nightmares, Betty seemed to be doing alright after everything that had happened. Her bruises were fading and her eye was not nearly as noticeable. She had been a little jumpy at times, but otherwise, she was her old self. And he was utterly head over heels in love with her.

The brunette loan officer re-emerged from the back office with a large envelope of paperwork and handed it to Jughead.

“Mr. Jones, on behalf of myself and the Bank of Riverdale, I would like to congratulate you on your new home,” she told him and handed him a set of keys.

He knew that Betty had been stressed about finding an apartment for them and the more he had thought about it, he didn’t want an apartment. He wanted a house they could call their own. He wanted to give her a home. She grew up next door to Archie and Jughead had spent a good part of his childhood and teens at their two homes, especially when things got rough with his own family. Jughead had always wanted that kind of stability growing up and hoped he would be able to provide that for his own family.

Archie had told Jughead about the house he and Veronica purchased and Jughead had made a few calls. Within a few days and with Archie’s help, Jughead met with the developer and had decided he would buy a house in the same neighborhood. The location was good and he liked the idea of having Archie and Veronica close by. As luck would have it, the one he ended up choosing though, was next door to Archie and Veronica’s.

Archie and Veronica would be moving in soon, but Jughead had a few things he wanted done to the house before he even told Betty about it. He just needed to keep her happy staying with FP a while longer until all of the work at the new house was done so he could surprise her with it. First, he wanted to get a security system installed. Then he had decided to get the garage upgraded a little, to make working on his bike a little more convenient. And finally, he wanted to make sure a deck was built in the backyard. The one that was currently there had a small eight foot by eight foot footprint. Jughead knew he wanted something bigger that they could entertain their friends and family on.

Jughead decided he would start making calls in the morning to expedite the process and hopefully be able to surprise Betty with his extravagant purchase sometime before Thanksgiving. In the meantime, he was itching to tell someone the good news.

**_Jug:_ ** _I got the keys Arch._

**_Archie:_ ** _When are you going to tell her?_

**_Jug:_ ** _Going to get a few upgrades in first. Maybe after you move in? Before Thanksgiving though._

**_Archie:_ ** _Your secret is safe with me._

The smell of tacos filled the air as Jughead walked into the Cooper-Jones home. Betty was leaned over the kitchen counter working on a math problem with Jelly Bean and to his surprise, Dutchie was wearing one of Betty’s frilly pink aprons and at the stove making taco meat.

“Oh honey, you’re home!” Dutchie exclaimed as he attempted to hug and kiss Jughead.

“Back to cooking, wench!” Jughead shouted as he pushed Dutchie back towards to stove and made his way to Betty. He wrapped his arms around her waist and planted a kiss on her lips.

“Ugh you guys are gross,” Jelly Bean rolled her eyes at them. “You’re like two apes constantly picking bugs off each other.”

“One day you’ll be this in love and gross,” Jughead promised her.

“Maybe even with that cute boy with the letterman jacket I keep seeing you with,” Betty teased.

“Oh my God. Stop. Both of you,” Jelly Bean warned.

“Who’s hungry?” Dutchie asked as he started laying out all the ingredients for tacos along the counter.

“Out of the way,” Jughead exclaimed and began filling his plate with tacos. He was quickly followed by Jelly Bean and Dutchie to the makeshift taco bar. Betty had seen these three eat before and decided she would rather wait until they were sitting down at the table before making her own plate unless she wanted to lose a finger. FP walked in after Betty sat down and quickly made his own and sat down with the rest of the group.

Dinner was light hearted and playful. Jelly Bean told them about school and Betty shared about her day helping Veronica register for gifts. Dutchie chimed in and even passed around the cinnamon candle Betty had bought him for everyone to smell, insisting that it was a Fireball candle. Dutchie was a surprisingly good cook and had even offered to help clean up. Jughead assured him he would be happy to do the dishes and thanked him again for hanging out with Betty today and then making dinner. He made a mental note to make sure he invited Dutchie to the house warming party in their future.

Later that night, Betty was already in bed reading a book when Jughead finished taking a shower and climbed in next to her. He rested his head on her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her stomach. He had a grin stretched from ear to ear.

“What are you smiling about?” Betty asked him.

“I’m just really happy, Betts,” Jughead told her. “Like truly happy and its all because of you.”

He reached out to take her book and tossed it across the room before reaching up and pulling her face down to his. She rolled over so that she was on top of him, straddling him with her legs.

“I guess we aren’t going to bed just yet,” she told him as he reached over and turned out the light.


	32. Chapter 32

Jughead was getting tired of the waiting game they were playing with Malachi. It had been almost two weeks and there hadn’t been any sign of him. Jughead flicked his cigarette away into the gravel of the parking lot of the Whyte Wyrm and pulled his jacket tighter against himself. The weather was getting cooler and fall was quickly approaching. Jughead decided he should call Archie and see if he could stop by the new house and check on the security system installers and see how it was going for him, but then, almost on cue, his phone began to vibrate.

“We’ve got him,” Sweet Pea confirmed into the phone. “He’s at the cabin with Fangs and Badger.”

“You sure they weren’t followed? We don’t need any Ghoulie trash showing up at the cabin,” Jughead told him.

“Ghoulies scattered when they saw us. No loyalty there, man,” Sweet Pea confirmed.

“Keep guys on him. I don’t want him out of their sight. I’ll be there tonight,” Jughead ordered. “What about the drugs?”

“Dutchie tailed the first truck. I’ll text you the address,” Sweet Pea told him.

“I’ll pass it on to FP. The faster that is broke up the better. Without orders for Malachi the Ghoulies should either go into hiding or leave town,” Jughead told him. He knew there was no loyalty to the rival gang. Malachi chose his members based on his ability to control them, mainly through addiction. Without him and a steady stream of cocaine and meth, the Ghoulies weren’t very motivated to do much on their own.

Moments later, Jughead received the address and forwarded it to FP. Jughead went back into the Whyte Wyrm and saddled up to the bar.

“How’s it hanging, boss,” she asked while wiping a glass clean.

“Well our package was delivered to the Greendale cabin, so I think a good portion of us will be there tonight. Do you think you could call Hog Eye and see if he can cover your shift tonight?” He asked.

Toni cocked an eyebrow at Jughead. Being one of the only female members meant that she generally only got to part take in jobs that required a woman as they tried to keep her out of the rougher fights. “Oh you mean little ole me is getting an invite to the party? Yeah, I’ll call Hog Eye and get him to cover.”

“I’m rolling out of here at nine,” he told her. “Don’t be late.”

“What about your old lady? She coming?”

“I don’t really want her involved,” he told her honestly. “But its ultimately her choice. She’s as much a Serpent as the rest of us.”

“Betty’s a badass,” Toni told him. “She knows what she can handle. She went through initiation the same as I did.”

Jughead checked the time, Betty would be off work in the next few hours. That gave him some time to kill and make sure preparations for tonight were taken care of. He texted Archie and Veronica.

**_Jug:_ ** _I hate to ask this, but can JB stay with you guys tonight? I need someone to keep eyes on her and make sure she’s not alone. I’ve got some Serpent stuff to settle._

**_Archie:_ ** _JB is always welcome._

**_Veronica:_ ** _Oooh! Sleepover and makeover? I can’t wait._

**_Jug:_ ** _I’ll drop her off between eight and nine. Don’t keep her up all night, V._

_Well that takes care of Jelly Bean,_ he told himself. _If Betty doesn’t want to go to the Greendale cabin, then I’ll suggest she stay with Veronica and Archie too._ Jughead knew this was Betty’s last shift for the week and since it was only Tuesday and her next shift wasn’t until the following Wednesday, she had a good chunk of time off and he hoped this whole Ghoulie issue would be taken care of and behind them by then.

As Jughead closed up the office of the Whyte Wyrm and left to get on his bike, he was met at the back door by Buzz Kill, or BK for short. He was in his late twenties and rode up to the bar on a black motorcycle. He looked out of place with his perfectly shaped beard, coiffed hairstyle, and dark gray suit pants and leather jacket. He was the GQ version of a Southside Serpent.

The Serpents were smart with their business dealings. Once Penny Peabody had been banned from the club, there had been a void left in terms of legal services for the Serpents. Buzz Kill had gone off to finish his law degree and FP and Jughead had decided it was in the Serpents’s best interest to invest in BK in order to have him return to Riverdale and stay on retainer for the club and its members.

“I should have called, but I’m glad I caught you,” BK told Jughead, reaching into the saddle bag of his bike and pulling out a black folder and handing it to Jughead. “I got listings for all of Malachi’s properties and went ahead and got the drafts ready for you, should you decide you want them. And as always, mums the word.”

“Thanks Buzz,” Jughead said. “I would be happy just having the Ghoulies gone, but this was a good idea. We might as well take what we can.”

“Anytime, you’ve got my number if you need it,” BK told him before firing up his bike. He gave Jughead a small tip of the head and drove back out of the parking lot he had just entered from.

Jughead tucked the folder into the saddle bag of his bike and took off towards the new house. He pulled up to the dark blue two story house in the quiet neighborhood and saw the security system installer van in the driveway. He met with the installer, going over how to access the cameras on his phone and setting up the passwords on the alarm system. Jughead stood in the kitchen, flipping through the different views of the house on his phone after the installer left feeling very happy with his decision to get more than the basic package.

The deck off the back of the house was complete. Jughead had hired one of the Serpent owned contractors in order to keep the money within the club. Being the King, his project had gotten pushed to the top of the list for the company and the deck had gotten done in a little over a week. The only thing left to finish was the garage, which Jughead and Archie had planned to tackle in the next week. Betty had agreed to help Veronica pack at the apartment, and Jughead and Archie were going to tell them they were finishing up painting Veronica and Archie’s new place, which was not entirely true since the painting crew was hired to finish this week. Veronica wanted nothing more than to be away from the new house until it was ready to move in and Jughead hoped that meant Betty would be with her so he would have time to finish his own surprise for her with Archie’s help. Veronica new he had been trying to buy the house next door but Jughead had decided it was better that she new fewer details about the whole thing in order to keep it a secret from Betty.

After a quick phone call from FP confirming the Ghoulie drug lab was under surveillance with a tentative plan to raid it in the next twenty four hours if not sooner, Jughead left his new house to return to the Cooper-Jones homestead. He packed a few overnight essentials for both himself and Betty into a backpack before telling Jelly Bean that she would be staying with Archie and Veronica tonight. Jelly Bean got her things together and packed her own overnight bag and went back down to the living room to watch television. He and FP were lucky that Jelly Bean was self motivated. They rarely had to remind her to finish her homework and she prided herself in her high GPA. Music was her drug of choice and she spent most of her weekends supporting local bands with her friends.

Jughead and Jelly Bean drove Betty’s SUV to the hospital where she was waiting for them just inside the doors. Seeing Jelly Bean in the front seat, Betty climbed into the backseat and greeted them both. She eyed the backpacks sitting in the backseat next to her.

“Are we going somewhere?” She asked through a yawn.

“I’m taking JB over to Archie and Veronica’s for the night,” Jughead told her. He didn’t want to tell Jelly Bean too much and hoped Betty wasn’t too tired to read between the lines. “I brought you some clothes to change into in case you want to stay too.”

“Uh huh,” Betty told him. He could feel her steely blue eyes piercing him through the back of the head. “And where are you going to be?”

“The Serpents got a delivery earlier that I need to see to,” he told her, eyeing her through the rearview mirror. “You are more than welcome to come if you feel up to it though. I just didn’t want you or JB to be home alone. FP is in the middle of a case and won’t be home until sometime tomorrow probably.”

Jughead pulled into the parking garage of Archie and Veronica’s apartment building. Jelly Bean, sensing the tension between Betty and her brother, took her bag and got out of the SUV and headed towards the stairwell up to the building.

“Go on up and we will be there in a minute,” Jughead had told her. Once she was out of earshot, Betty climbed into the front seat so she could talk to Jughead face to face.

“Does this delivery involve a certain Ghoulie leader?” She questioned him point blank.

“It does.”

“Then I’m in,” she told him.

“Betts, I’m trying to help you stay out of it as much as I can. You don’t have to come,” he told her.

“You’re not going to be able to convince me otherwise, Jones,” she told him. “You know we have had three kids show up at work who all overdosed in the last few weeks?Kids, Jug. They were barely old enough to drive. All on laced heroin and I think its pretty obvious where its coming from.”

“It might get messy, Betts,” he told her, hoping she would stay far away from any actual action. He was afraid this might push her over the edge. “You can always step out if you need to, okay? I don’t want to stir anything up in you or make you regret anything.”

“I know when enough is enough,” she promised him. She reached back to grab the backpack. “But I’m going to change before we go and we need to tell Arch and V thank you.”

They were in and out of their friends’s apartment in less than ten minutes and then back on the road toward the Wyrm. Their Serpent friends were already waiting in the parking lot when they pulled in. Toni carried a box and motioned to the trunk of Betty’s SUV. Jughead unlocked the back gate of the SUV and Toni pulled the box into the back.

“Just some necessities,” she told them.

With a signal from Jughead, Sweet Pea left the parking lot first leading the way out of town towards the road to Greendale, followed by Jughead and Betty in the SUV, Dutchie and Toni riding together on a Dutchie’s bike and finally a handful of other older Serpents on their own bikes. They drove for forty five minutes through the back roads to Greendale. The trees had already started to let their leaves yellow and the thermometer reading on the dashboard said it was a balmy fifty degrees. They hadn’t seen another vehicle in twenty minutes and Jughead was secretly happy that the cabin was still incredibly secluded.

Sweet Pea slowed down and turned down a path just beyond the traffic barrier that passers-by would not even know was there without prior knowledge. Jughead and the others turned to follow him down the dirty path that was shrouded in overgrown trees. After a few minutes, the path opened up to a small clearing and the glow from the cabin windows could be seen.

“Welcome to the Chateau de Serpent,” Jughead joked. He could sense Betty getting lost in her own head and answered her questions before she could ask them. “It’s an old safe house the original members used when they needed a place to hide or get away for a while. We hadn’t been out here in years until a few weeks ago. Sweet Pea got it unlocked and back up and running when we realized we were going to need a place a little more secluded than the Wyrm.”

Badger was smoking a cigarette on the front porch of the cabin as the group unloaded. He held the door open for them as everyone filed inside. Toni carried the box into the kitchen, taking out two sub sandwiches and tossing them to Badger for himself and Fangs who had been at the cabin all day. Badger had already opened his sandwich and had a mouthful before he had even left the kitchen. Two of the other Serpents retreated to the door in the kitchen that lead to the basement in order to relieve Fangs so he could come up and eat too.

“Where are we at with him?” Jughead asked Fangs, his voice hushed.

“Badger has definitely started repaying him for his own beat down,” Fangs told the group. “He’s still got some life in him though.”

“It won’t last long,” Jughead told him. “I’ve got my own plans when he decides he’s ready to beg for his life though.”

Betty shivered at the ideas that ran through her mind at that comment from Jughead. She knew he was upset about the Ghoulie situation and he had been keeping his hot headed anger in check for the past few weeks. She was only person who could make the fire in him dissipate with a simple touch but she wasn’t sure that Malachi would even deserve that sort of reprieve. She didn’t want to decide who lived or died and the thought of shooting Penny was a nightmare that replayed in her head almost every night, unbeknownst to Jughead. She knew that telling him would only make him feel worse about everything that had happened.

Toni finished unloading her box of essentials in the kitchen, which consisted mostly of beer, some soda, a bottle of whiskey, and some sandwiches and snacks. Fangs and Badger were stretched out on the two old sofas in the living room. The living room, much like every room in the dated cabin, had dark paneling on the walls adorned with paintings of ducks and other small forrest animals. The orange shag carpeting smelled dusty as did the yellowed curtains handing from the windows. The sofas were both a floral print with too much orange and yellow in the pattern that reminded Betty of something her grandmother had in her home when she was little. Someone had started a fire in the hearth to help warm up the small space.

Toni took Betty up the creaky stairs of the cabin to the bedrooms on the second story. Toni tossed her own bag down in the first room to the right at the top of the stairs. It had twin bunk beds on one wall an a full size mattress that was clearly sinking in the middle on the other side of the small room.

“I’m taking this one. I haven’t been out here since I was little,” she told Betty. “It hasn’t changed at all. Why don’t you and Jug grab the one at the end of the hall. It’s a little more private.”

Betty continued down the hall. The next door on the right was a small bathroom. She turned on the light to see that everything in the bathroom was pale pink. _My mother would have loved this,_ she told herself. The next door was a small linen closet and then the last door on the right opened up to a small room with a queen size bed. Betty laid their bag on the bed and sat down on the mattress to give it a few bounces. It wasn’t as bad as she had thought. The bedding smelled clean and she assumed Sweet Pea had either washed everything in the house or had brought new bedding out knowing that the Serpents may be staying there at some point. Jughead was leaning in the doorway when she looked up.

“Settling in?” He asked her. His arms were crossed over his chest, a stray strand of black curls sneaking out of his beanie and laying across his forehead.

“It’s comfortable,” she told him as she stood up and strode across the room to where he was. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he placed his hands on her hips and leaned down to kiss her.

There were footsteps in the hall and Badger and Fangs were climbing into the bunk beds in Toni’s room. Within seconds snores were coming from the other doorway. Jughead’s focus turned back to Betty. He looked down into her bright blue eyes. “I want to be honest with you, Betts, but how much do you want to know?” He was searching her face for an answer before she had opened her mouth to speak.

“I’m here. I need to know the plan past this point,” she told him.

He sighed, wishing he could keep her protected from this whole ordeal but knowing she was already in too deep. “Malachi is in the basement. Fangs and Badger have been taking turns laying into him since he got here. They are taking a break and getting some sleep and the other Serpents that rode out with us got a few hits in and they are heading back to Riverdale now to watch over the Wyrm. Dutchie is on watch for the cabin. Sweet Pea and Toni are in the basement now and will be trying to get any information out of him that we can over the next few hours,” he told her.

Betty nodded, taking in the information. “So what then? We beat him to death?” She asked.

“We need to make sure we know how far his reach goes with the drugs in Riverdale. We are trying to get information out of him. FP and the rest of the Sheriff’s office have had surveillance on the main distribution property today and should be raiding it by morning. We have been using his phone to round up as many Ghoulies as we can to make sure they are there when the raid happens,” he continued. “As for Malachi, we won’t beat him to death, but trust me he is going to beg us to.”

Jughead reached into the backpack on the bed and pulled out the black folder Buzz Kill had given him earlier in the day. “I met with the Serpents’ lawyer a few days ago and he got me the paperwork needed to have Malachi sign over his properties to me and the club. I need to make sure the properties are in his name at the time of the raid so the drugs don’t come back on the club and then I will have him sign them over in return for his freedom.”

“And what? You’re just going to let him go?” Betty was putting it all together and thumbing through the stack of documents for the various buildings and businesses in the Southside Malachi currently controlled, some of them being warehouses, an auto-shop, and Hysteria.

“More or less,” Jughead told her. “FP will have men waiting for him. His freedom will be temporary and then he will be in jail and the Serpents will have expanded their territory back over the Southside.”

“That’s a lot, Jug,” Betty told him, handing the folder back. “I would have been happy just knowing he was off the streets.”

“The property acquisition was something I came up with a few days ago. It may not work and if it doesn’t we aren’t out anything. But if it does, I can help some of the Serpents get their businesses back and the club will have some extra income coming in so we can take care of our own and their families.”

Betty was more awake than she had been, but she yawned and let her eyes close a little longer than she had planned. She was falling asleep on her feet. Jughead pulled her over to the bed and urged her down onto it with him. She laid on the side of the bed against the wall. She and Jughead were facing each other, with his arm supporting her head that was tucked securely into his chest while her arm draped across his side and her legs tangled with his. He set an alarm his phone for 2 AM when he would go down to switch places with Sweet Pea and Toni. It felt strange to try to sleep when Malachi was two floors below them, but after an hour of listening to Betty sleep, Jughead drifted off almost as easily as she had.


	33. Chapter 33

The alarm on Jughead’s phone went off much faster than he had hoped it would. He reached a long arm out into the darkness to silence it. He gently pulled his other arm out from under Betty and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes before going to the bathroom to splash water on his face and brush his teeth. The bags under his eyes had gotten darker and more pronounced over the past week from his lack of sleep and his attempt to balance his Serpent life with his personal life.

Walking back down the hallway, Jughead peaked into the other bedroom. Badger and Fangs were still sawing logs in the bunk beds. Jughead continued down the stairs and out to the front porch where Dutchie was smoking a cigarette.

“Great minds think alike,” Jughead told him as he pulled his own pack out of his jacket. He realized hadn’t been smoking as much since Betty had gotten back, but the last few weeks had kicked his nicotine habit back into full gear. He told himself he would try to quit again when this was all done and over with.

After he finished his cigarette, Jughead went back into the house and down the stairs to the basement. Sweet Pea was sitting on a deep freezer in the corner with one leg hanging off the freezer and the other tucked up under his resting arm. He was smirking and licking his lips as he watched Toni, in her tight jeans and black sports bra, land another punch to Malachi’s ribs. Her pink pigtails whipping around her face with every move.

“Is it weird that I’m totally turned on right now?” Sweet Pea whispered to Jughead who joined him on the sidelines.

“I worry about you sometimes,” Jughead told him. “Brass knuckles, huh?”

“I figured she could do a little more damage with them,” Sweet Pea said through his smirk, his eyes not leaving Toni. “She’s like a tiny, pink biker barbie.”

Jughead rolled his eyes. “Keep it in your pants Sweets. She would ruin you.”

Malachi’s arms were above his head and tied together above the pipe above him. His bruised and bloodied body hung from his raw wrists, his toes scraping on the cold cement. Malachi’s breathing was labored and shallow. He head hung loosely between his shoulders, a stream of spit and blood dripping from his mouth.

“Any word from FP?” Sweet Pea asked, cracking his knuckles loudly and handing a bottle of beer to Toni.

“I came down to check on you two before I call him,” Jughead told them.

“Things are good down here, boss,” Toni told him. She had blood splattered on her forehead but she continued to smile up through her long lashes and perfect makeup. She took another swig of her beer as she watched the almost lifeless man before them.

Jughead went back upstairs and settled in on one of the ancient sofas and called FP.

“Sheriff Jones,” FP answered. Jughead clued into the greeting that FP had deputies nearby.

“Just checking in, dad,” he told him.

“DEA arrived a few hours ago,” FP told him in his professional Sheriff voice. “We are hitting the warehouse in the next hour.”

“I’ll make sure we get as many more Ghoulies there as we can before then. Let me know when its done,” Jughead told him.

Jughead returned to the basement and informed Sweet Pea to send off another message from Malachi’s phone to whatever contacts he had in it to get to the warehouse ASAP. A low moan came from the bloodied man hanging from the overhead plumbing.

"Bring him down. I’m going to need him to have some feeling in his arms soon,” Jughead told them. “Toni, switch out with Dutchie for a while.”

Toni left up the stairs to be replaced with Dutchie. Sweet Pea positioned a chair beneath Malachi while Dutchie cut the ropes binding his arms to the plumbing. His body dropped down with a thud onto the chair below. Dutchie and Sweet Pea worked quickly to tie him back up to the chair with his arms down towards his sides in order for the blood flow to return to his limbs.

“Leave him alone for a while, I need him to wake up,” Jughead told them. “Dutch, did you bring what I asked for?”

“Sure did, boss,” Dutchie told him through his mop of unkept hair.

“Good, we will need it later,” he told him. “Keep an eye on him, but I’ll be back in a few minutes. I’m going to go wake the guys up.”

Jughead jogged back up the stairs to the living room and peaked out at Toni on the porch silently sipping her beer. Then he was back up the stairs and into the first bedroom and turned on the overhead light, waking up Badger and Fangs.

“Raid in less than an hour,” he told them. Both men rolled out of the bunk beds and stood and stretched before fighting their way into the small bathroom. Fangs was the first out of the bathroom and down the stairs and into the kitchen. He opened the fridge, cracking a beer and opening a bag of beef jerky.

Jughead went to check on Betty who was sitting up and scrolling through her phone in the dark as he entered the room. The glow from the phone illuminated her face in the dark room, but she turned it off and set the phone aside when she saw him in the doorway.

“Online shopping?” He asked jokingly. She wasn’t big on social media and she was scrolling too quickly to be reading a book on her phone.

“Weirdly enough, yes,” she told him. “Veronica sent me links to the dresses she is letting me pick from for the wedding.”

Jughead chuckled. Only Betty would be in the middle of taking down a drug dealer and disbanding a gang while holed up in the woods in a biker cabin and shopping for the maid of honor dress for their best friend’s wedding. He sat down next to her and planted a kiss on her forehead. The voices of Fangs and Badger were heard from downstairs and the sounds of pots and pans being moved around echoed up the the bedroom Betty and Jughead were sitting in.

“Everyone is downstairs. Want to come down?” He asked her.

“I suppose so,” she answered. He reached into the backpack and pulled out a small bag ofher bathroom essentials and handed it to her. She was happy to have her toothbrush and deodorant on hand after sleeping so hard. He waited for her to return from the bathroom before packing up their things in the bag. He wanted to be able to make a fast getaway if necessary.

“Jug, you didn’t pack me a sweatshirt did you?” She asked, rubbing her hands over her arms.

“Here,” he said as he slid his leather jacket off and tossed it on the bed before unbuttoning his plaid flannel shirt and handing it to her. She slipped her arms into the warm sleevesof the flannel and breathed in his scent before buttoning it up. She rolled up the sleeves and tucked the front of it into her tight denim jeans. Jughead loved how she looked in his clothes, even though they were always a few sizes too big.

Jughead slung the backpack over one arm and led Betty down the stairs to the living room. Toni was poking at the fire in the hearth, making it roar back to life. Fangs had made up a pan of bacon and eggs and retreated to the porch to keep watch over the safe house as the others had started to eat.

“You don’t have to come down to the basement if you don’t want to,” Jughead whispered to Betty. “But I need to go down there.”

She nodded but followed silently behind him down the creaky stairs to the basement. Sweet Pea was still perched on the freezer, sipping on his beer and listening to Malachi groan and swing his head back and forth from one shoulder to the other. Betty let out a quick breath when she saw the bloody and beaten man that had been behind so much of the crime and violence in Riverdale. She saw it first hand at work and had experienced it herself more recently than she cared to think about. She subconsciously ran her fingers over the healing bruises on her face.

Sweet Pea offered Betty a hand up to the freezer and she pulled herself up, tucking her legs up under her chin and wrapping her arms around herself. Jughead’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his pocket, checked the screen, and put it away. Jughead bent over at the waist putting him eye to eye with Malachi before kicking at his ankles. The Serpent King switch had been flipped.

“Wake the fuck up,” he told him through his teeth. Betty was sure his eyes had gone dark and he was now letting his own darkness take over as he fulfilled his role as the Serpent leader. Jughead stood back up, now towering over the drug lord of Riverdale.

Malachi’s head rolled to the side and he looked up at Jughead through swollen eyes. Malachi spit the pooled blood in his mouth out onto the cement before smiling up at his captors. “Enough of the payback, Jones,” Malachi told him through ragged breaths. “My men will come for me and then the fun will really begin.”

Jughead pulled back and landed a fist in Malachi’s ribs. “I’ll be sure that they provide you the same amount,” he spit blood again, “of hospitality you’ve shown me.”

“Doubtful,” Jughead told him, taking a step back and flexing his hand.

“I’m sure that pretty blonde of yours wouldn’t mind coming along too. Sounds like she put on quite a show last time,” Malachi leaned out to look around Jughead in order to get a glimpse of Betty on the freezer. “I just wonder if she tastes as sweet as she looks,” he said, licking his lips. Sweet Pea hopped off the freezer, cracking his knuckles again and walking towards Jughead who was already burying another fist into Malachi’s ribs.

Betty watched as the others came down the stairs to congregate in the basement with them. Toni climbed up on the freezer next to Betty. Badger, Fangs, and Dutchie lined the wall at the bottom of the stairs and blocking the only exit from the basement. Jughead looked towards Sweet Pea, nodding slightly and giving him a silent signal. Sweet Pea stepped behind Malachi, gripped his hair, and pulled his head back before placing a knife to his throat.

“I’m willing to make you a deal,” Jughead told him, his arms crossed against his chest again. “We can kill you here, slowly, over the next few days _or_ you can sign over your Riverdale assets to the Serpents and go free. It’s your call.”

Sweet Pea pressed the knife firmly into his neck. A small dribble of blood trickled down his tattered shirt. Any cockiness in Malachi’s eyes had been replaced by fear. He was a leader who hated getting his hands dirty and he ruled over his own gang using fear and manipulation. Suddenly, the thought of being tortured like this for days on end made him question his own crew’s loyalty to him.

“So what do you want to do, Malachi?” Jughead asked him. “Sign or I’ll make sure your death is much more drawn out than Penny’s was.”

Malachi looked around fearful. He reminded Betty of a wounded animal, searching for a way out of the current situation. He wasn’t ready to die for his gang of junkies. He began to break down, tears running down his cheeks.

“I sign and you let me go?” He asked again through sobs.

Jughead nodded, his lips pursed and his gaze fixed on the broken man in front of him.

“Fine. Fine. I’ll sign,” he agreed through his ragged breaths.

Jughead signaled to Dutchie who handed him the folder of documents and a pen. Sweet Pea removed his knife from Malachi’s neck and cut his wrists free. Malachi rubbed his wrists and shook his arms out to regain some feeling in his hands. Sweet Pea then pulled out his phone and shot off a message to FP.

Malachi began to skim through the paperwork that was being held out before him by Fangs. Malachi struggled to grip the pen, but shakily signed his name to each and every line that was pointed out to him. Fangs then handed the paperwork to Jughead who began to sign his own name to the documents. “It’s not going to stand up in court without a notary Jones,” Malachi spit out, his last attempt to squash the deal Jughead was making him.

“Oh I’m aware,” Jughead told him, his smirk painted across his face again. “Luckily, we have a notary here to go ahead and make this as official as well can until this all get filed.”

Malachi began scanning through the group again, any hope he had regained now lost. Dutchie stepped forward, pulling a clip-on tie out of his pocket and affixing it to the collar of his t-shirt. Betty hushed her own laugh with her hands. _Of course, out of all the Serpents we have at our disposal, Dutchie would be a Notary Public_. Jughead looked back over his shoulder at her, the anger in his eyes directed towards Malachi gone as he shot her a wink. Dutchie took the paperwork from Jughead, stamped every page and affixed his own signature. Malachi rolled his eyes and let out another sob.

“We will stand by our word, you will be turned loose,” Jughead told Malachi, still towering over him. His voice was low and gravely. “And if you ever fuck with me or my girl again, I swear to God I will slit your throat and throw you in Sweetwater River. Do I make myself clear?”

“Crystal,” Malachi spit out through his sobs.

“Good,” Jughead told him before letting one more punch land on the man’s jaw, knocking him unconscious.


	34. Chapter 34

Toni finished up the dishes in the kitchen and packed up anything that would spoil. She decided to leave the alcohol for who ever needed to use the safe house next. Jughead had sent Badger and Sweet Pea in Betty’s SUV, with Malachi tied up in the trunk, back to Riverdale. They were to leave him tied to the “Welcome to Riverdale” sign with enough heroin on his person to ensure he would be in jail for an indefinite about of time. Where on his person it was located was up to Badger and Sweet Pea, knowing they would probably get disgustingly creative. FP had already sent a deputy out to patrol the area that morning, knowing what he would find and report in the process.

Jughead washed the blood off his knuckles in the bathroom sink. The split skin burned under the cold water. Betty smoothed Neosporin over the cuts and wrapped his hand in a bandage before helping him put on his gloves. They locked up the cabin and looked out at the bikes.

Dutchie and Fangs climbed onto their own bikes and Toni settled herself on Badger’s bike. Jughead was already on Sweet Pea’s bike and offering a hand to Betty.

“Hey, uh, Toni,” Jughead asked, knowing she didn’t own a motorcycle of her own. “When the hell was the last time you drove a bike?”

“That’s a good question,” she told him as she kicked it to life. “I’ll go slow,” she told them, winking as she spun the back tire, throwing gravel and mulch in their direction before heading down the long path back to the road. The others followed suit and were soon on their way back to Riverdale.

The ride back was much more enjoyable for Jughead. The cold fall air whipped past their faces and he lived for the feeling Betty’s arms tight around his waist, her body heat radiating up his back and under his leather jacket. The sky was a bright blue, contrasting with the yellowing trees flanking the road. Knowing that Malachi was behind bars with whatever Ghoulies hadn’t fled had lifted a heavy weight off his chest.

Pulling into the Whyte Wyrm was just a pit stop for Jughead and Betty. After switching keys with Sweet Pea, they were back in Betty’s SUV and headed to the house they shared with his sister and father.

“I think I could sleep for a week,” Betty told him, throwing herself down on their bed.

“Things definitely feel better without any of this Ghoulie stuff looming over my head,” he told her, running his hands down his face in exhaustion. His stomach growled. “You hungry?”

“I could eat,” she told him.

“I’ll go make something,” he told her. Betty climbed off the bed, stripping off her clothes and leaving them like a breadcrumb trail to the bathroom. She showered quickly, knowing the longer she stood in the hot water, the closer she was to closing her eyes and falling asleep. Wrapped in her towel, she climbed back into bed as Jughead entered the room with orange juice and breakfast sandwiches.

“Jughead Jones, you’ve been getting very domestic on me,” she told him through her wide smile.

“I learn from the best,” he told her, popping another bite of his sandwich in his mouth. Betty eyed him as she ate her own sandwich. The bags under his eyes were getting darker and more pronounced. She could see he was beyond exhausted and started to wonder when he had really slept last. His phone had been buzzing at all hours of the day and night over the past few weeks and he had been on edge since the day she had been taken by the Ghoulies.

“Jug, go take a shower and lets just stay in bed all day, okay?” She offered.

He nodded, his black curls bouncing around his head. He shoved the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and took the few strides to the bathroom and got in the shower. Betty texted Veronica another thank you for letting Jelly Bean stay the night and giving her a ride to school. She let them know they were back at home and were planning to stay in bed all day after a busy last few weeks. Veronica reminded her that they were dress shopping tomorrow in the afternoon and would pick her up on her way to the dress shop. Betty confirmed and shut down her phone, ready to get some uninterrupted sleep.

Jughead emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waiste, steam following him out. His long lean body glistening from the water dripping from his hair. Betty got up on her knees, placing her hand on his chest and letting her fingers trace the muscles on his torso while she reached up with her other hand and pulled his face down to hers. He could feel her deepen the kiss, slipping her tongue past his lips and tightening her grip on his hair. He moved himself down onto their bed, slowing the kiss.

“Betts, I love you, but I think I’m too tired to get either of us off right now,” he told her, leaning back into the pillows.

“Then don’t,” she told him, playfully winking at him and moving her body down his and pulling at the towel around his waist. “You took care of me, now its my turn.” He watched her with tired eyes as she moved her hand up and down his length, teasing the tip with her tongue as she looked up at him through her long lashes.

“Fuck Betts,” he moaned as he leaned his head further back into the pillows. Her tongue continued to encircle his tip, tasting the beads of pre-cum that formed as she stroked him. She enveloped his member with her mouth, moving her head in an even motion with her hands. She let out a moan and the vibration from it made his cock twitched as he ran his hand through her blonde hair. Using her other hand, she rolled his balls in her palm as she stroked him harder and faster. She watched as his breathing hitched and his body tightened. His hand in her hair guided her around his cock, letting her know how fast he needed her to go. He let out another moan and she felt him begin to pulsate in her mouth, spilling his arousal down her throat before she used her tongue to clean off his sensitive appendage. He reached for her, pulling her up in the bed with him.

“You shouldn’t have any problems falling asleep now,” she told him. She reached over and put his phone on silent before setting it back down on his bedside table.

“That will probably send me into a full blown coma,” he told her, kissing her deeply and pulling her into the crook of his arm. Betty laid there, wrapped around him, waiting for his breathing to become even before letting herself slip back into unconsciousness.

The two slept until night had fallen. Jughead ordered a pizza and they decided they would continue their snooze fest and stay in tonight. FP had checked in with Jughead when the pizza was delivered but was just finally getting home and was going straight to bed himself. Jelly Bean spent the majority of her night holed up in her room listening to music on her phone. Jughead tossed her a few slices of pizza before returning to their room where Betty was waiting with Netflix pulled up on the small TV on the dresser.

———————————————————————————————————————

Betty woke up earlier than Jughead and spent more than enough time watching him sleep. His face was calm and childlike, reminding her of a younger version of him that she had fallen for so many years before. The bags under this eyes weren’t as pronounced and his skin looked brighter now that he had gotten some sleep.

The sun was up and Betty had grown tired of running on a treadmill in Archie’s gym under Jughead’s, or her assigned Serpent chauffeur’s, watchful eye over the past few weeks. She slipped on her gym clothes and tennis shoes and left Jughead a note next to his phone letting him know she had gone for a run. She knew he probably wouldn’t be happy about it, but with the Ghoulie issue taken care of, she felt confident in her ability to run around the neighborhood a few times.

Her playlist was pulled up and thumping in her earbuds and her shoes pounded the pavement. She waved at the neighbor out picking up her morning paper and passed teenagers walking to school. The cool air stung her lungs but she loved the feeling and pushed on. The images she passed in the bright morning sun in her quiet childhood neighborhood made her heart swell. She was happy she had come home. She hadn’t felt this sort of joy the entire time she had been in Boston. She and Jughead were falling into a routine of domestic bliss and she was grateful to have FP and Jelly Bean around. Jughead was proving himself to her over and over again and she loved him for it. Her friends were loyal and she enjoyed spending time with them. She even enjoyed her job more than she didn’t and was enjoying the slower pace of the Riverdale hospital. For the first time, Betty could say she felt truly happy.

She returned home thirty minutes later sweatier and more relaxed. She busied herself in the kitchen, first chugging a cold glass of water and then going through the refrigerator and pantry making a list of what they needed at the store. Then she began slicing fruit, making toast, and scrambling eggs. FP sat down at the kitchen counter first, blowing into his coffee before he was ready to acknowledge the blonde standing before him. Jughead followed behind him and mirrored his father, sitting at the counter, blowing on his black coffee, and waiting until it was cool enough before he could take the first few sips. Betty watched the men as she ate her own breakfast. She knew it would be about three sips before either of them was awake enough to speak. The Jones’ were not known to be morning people.

Once willing to speak, FP told them about the raid. They were able to arrest nearly forty of the Ghoulies and their buyers who had convened at the warehouse thanks to the texts that were sent out from Malachi’s phone. The Riverdale jail didn’t even have room for them all so most had been bussed to Seaside where they were booked. A few had fled as Jughead had suspected they would. Malachi was picked up right where they had left him and had been bookedand sent to the prison outside of Seaside on felony charges. His bail was had been revoked and his trial was not for another month. Jughead showed his father the paperwork Buzz Kill had drawn up on Malachi’s properties in the Southside and explained he had to drop them off later today.

“You just doubled the amount of property for the club, son,” FP told him. “Do you know what this could mean for some of the guys?”

“I do,” Jughead told him. “We need to get Serpent businesses back in them and keep the money coming in. We have our own we need to look out for. Ace’s wife is going to need to be taken care of. I figure I’ll announce it to the club after everything is official and we have an idea of what the properties are like. Let them decide who will set up shop where.”

Betty continued on with her happily mundane routine around the house. She cleaned up from breakfast and swept and mopped the kitchen. She picked up the living room and made time to dust and vacuum. She took out the trash and the recycling, pulling the cans to the curb. Betty lit a few candles around the house and opened the curtains wide, letting light into the house. Jughead was meeting Buzz Kill to get the new property rights filed and wanted to sit down with him and looking at the zoning for each of the properties. He kissed her goodbye, wishing her a good day trying on dresses.

Betty showered and made sure to grab her notebook filled with her scribbles for Veronica’s wedding. They rode to the small dress shop in downtown Riverdale and enjoyed glasses of champagne as Veronica tried on dress after dress. Betty made sure to take photos of each dress from multiple angles for Veronica. After what felt like hours, Veronica stepped out of the dressing room with tears in her eyes. Overtaken by emotion, Betty and Veronica agreed that the lace dress was “the one” before Veronica told them to ring it up.

Veronica, back in her street clothes and with her makeup reapplied, sent Betty off to the dressing room to begin trying on her maid of honor dress. Betty came out in dress after dress, modeling each for her best friend. Unbeknownst to Betty, Veronica had been taking photos of her in each dress and sending them to Jughead. Betty stepped out of the dressing room in a light blue, satin, halter dress that fell below her knee.

“That’s it!” Veronica told her. “That’s the one. Add this to my tab!” Veronica tapped the camera on her phone one last time and sent it off to Jughead.

——————————————————————————————————————

Jughead sat in BK’s posh office going over a map of the Southside and discussing possibilities for each property when his phone started to vibrate. He saw a text from Veronica and opened it to see a photo of his beautiful girlfriend. He closed the screen and went back to work with BK before it vibrated again and he again saw another photo of his girlfriend, now in a different dress. The photos kept coming through and Jughead smiled to himself, thanking whatever higher power there may be out there for letting him have a second chance with Betty.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Betty and Jughead fell into a rhythm over the next few weeks. On the days she wasn’t working, she would get up and go for a run. Jughead even went with her a few times even though he would rather get his workout in at the gym with Archie and a punching bag. Betty would then knock out whatever housework needed to be done and would spend her afternoons with Veronica going over wedding details. Jughead would hang around the house in the mornings before going to the gym with Archie and then he would go to the Wyrm for work where he would balance the books or work with some of the older Serpents and BK on coming up with business plans for the newly acquired properties. On the days that Betty had to work, Jughead would make her breakfast and drive her to work before doing his own things during the day and then he would pick her up and they would get dinner somewhere.

Betty was still searching the internet for an apartment for them. She had easily fallen into a routine in the home with the Jones’ but she still wished they could have their own place so she could start laying some roots back into Riverdale. With her working more consistent hours she was able to put more aside than she had planned and was starting to build her savings back up.

Jelly Bean had began gathering her college applications and Betty was spending this particular afternoon helping her fill them out. Since she had some spending money, she offered to pay for Jelly Bean’s application fees, which had been Jelly Bean’s biggest deterrent from applying yet since most of the schools she was interested in were out of state. FP had offered to pay for the fees for the schools in state, hoping his youngest would stay close to home. Betty had convinced Jelly Bean to agree to accept his help and the in-state schools could be her backup options if she didn’t get into one of the schools she had applied to across the country. Betty was sealing up the last of the application envelopes and setting them on the counter so she could drop them off at the post office in the morning, when her phone buzzed to a group text.

**_Veronica:_ ** _Don’t forget, moving day tomorrow!_

**_Betty:_ ** _We will be there bright and early_

**_Veronica:_ ** _Bring your muscles boys! This furniture isn’t going to move itself_

**_Archie:_ ** _I’m still confused on why we couldn’t hire movers_

**_Betty:_ ** _Where’s the fun in that?_

**_Archie:_ ** _About three stories up where Jug and I wouldn’t have to be carrying our sofa down the stairs and we could be drinking a beer with our feet up_

**_Veronica:_ ** _Oh come on, I’m supplying beer and pizza_

**_Jughead_ ** _: You had me at beer and pizza_

Betty didn’t mind helping out their friends, but much like in Boston, she was not looking forward to hauling boxes and furniture down all of those stairs. She had a better idea, sending a text to Toni. Betty was the Serpent Queen and had a whole mess of strong bikers at her fingertips, so why not use them tomorrow? Toni assured her she would have some of the guys meet them at Veronica and Archie’s apartment in the morning.

———————————————————————————————————————

Jughead had just finished working out and had settled into the chair across the office from Archie’s desk. He took a few drinks out of his bottle and brushed his sweat soaked hair out of his face. Archie leaned back in his chair, tossing a football between his hands.

“So you ready for tomorrow?” Archie asked him.

“Moving you into your place? Yeah I guess so,” Jughead told him.

“You know what I meant, man,” Archie teased him. “About telling Betty about the house. You’re not bailing now are you?”

“I’m nervous,” he admitted. “But I think its time. I’ve been going between my dad’s place and the bar for the last few years and now that Betty is back we have been needing our own space.”

“That’s what JB told us,” Archie laughed.

Jughead rolled his eyes. “I can’t help if Betty is loud.”

“Oh she is,” Archie confirmed. “I remember being able to hear you from next door when we were in high school.” Jughead blushed. He knew Betty was more than happy sing his praises in bed but he hadn’t realized how many other people had heard them.

“Really though, thanks for helping me get the garage done. It’s all ready to go and fingers crossed she’s not too mad that I bought an entire house.”

“When are you going to tell her?”

“Probably after everything is moved into your place. I feel like she will either be ecstatic or incredibly pissed and either way we won’t be much help after that point.”

“Fair enough,” Archie told him. “But for your sake, I hope she’s ecstatic.”


	35. Chapter 35

It was a crisp September morning when Jughead and Betty woke up to simultaneous texts from their friends announcing it was “Moving day!” After eating a quick breakfast, Jughead dressed in dark jeans, a gray flannel tied around his waist, a tight black tank top, and his signature crown beanie atop his head, knowing he would end up sweaty by the end of the day even if the weather was cooler. Betty wore her signature pony tail along with one of Jughead’s t-shirts tucked into the front of her form fitting denim jeans. He loved when she wore his clothes and reached out to cup her face and kiss her before they left the house.

They drove Betty’s SUV in order to give themselves some extra room to move Veronica and Archie’s things in case the U-Haul truck was too full. Jughead pulled up to the apartment complex and realized there were about ten motorcycles parked near the entrance.

Betty could see him looking at the bikes. “I may have called in a favor,” Betty told him as his head snapped to her with a shocked smile on his face. “I know how much stuff they have in that apartment and I’m being selfish but I didn’t really want to carry everything down all those stairs.”

Jughead smiled at her shaking his head, “Ordering the Serpents around? You’re getting pretty comfortable in the Queen title aren’t you?”

“No!” She scoffed. “Okay, maybe a little. But think about how much time and back ache we just saved ourselves.”

Betty and Jughead let themselves into their friends’ apartment to find Veronica standing in the middle of the living room holding a cup of coffee and barking out orders to the Serpents who were moving boxes and furniture out to the truck below.

“Morning guys,” Archie told him as he shuffled by them carrying an ottoman out the door. “Coffee is in the kitchen. Sorry about her,” he told them as he tossed his head in Veronica’s direction.

“About time you guys got here! Okay, Betty I need your help boxing up the rest of the kitchen,” Veronica told them with authority. “Jug, help these guys empty the furniture out of the living room.”

“If this is how she is moving out of their apartment, I can only imagine how scary bridezilla is,” Jughead whispered to Betty.

“You have no idea,” she told him as she made her way into the kitchen.

By noon the moving truck was full with the first load to go to Archie and Veronica’s new house. Jughead and Archie went with the Serpents to the new house to unload the truck while Betty started helping Veronica empty out her closet. Once the SUV was full with more clothing than Betty thought was humanly necessary to own, the women stopped to pick up burgers and fries for everyone at the new house. Stepping into the new house, Betty tossed the bag of burgers to Archie who was immediately swarmed by hungry bikers. Veronica pulled Betty upstairs to give her the tour.

They started in the master bedroom, walking through to the master bathroom, the walk in closet, the other bedrooms and bathrooms, downstairs to a small office, the kitchen that looked out into the living room then through to the pantry, the garage, and back out the sliders in the dining room to the back yard. Betty took in all the details and noted how much light there was in the house. It smelled like paint and plastic, the tell tale signs that it was a new home. She ran her fingers over the tile of the backsplash in the kitchen and imagined the gatherings they would have during the holidays in front of the stone fireplace. She was absolutely in love with this new house and was suddenly hit with the realization that she and Jughead would go home to sleep in her childhood bed in her childhood home. They weren’t any where closer to moving out and her heart sunk at the thought.

She shook the thought from her head, remembering that today was about Archie and Veronica. They continued working through the afternoon making trips from the apartment to the new house. Veronica had pizza and beer waiting at the house after the last trip from the apartment was done. The Serpents dug into the pizza and guzzled down the cold beer, thanking Veronica for dinner. She waved them off and told them it was the least she could do since they helped do a lot of the heavy lifting. They hung around for another hour, helping move furniture up to the bedrooms on the second floor before they called it a day and took off.

Betty sat on the deck looking out over the large backyard as she ate her pizza. The sun was starting to sink below the tree line and the golden light of the afternoon had begun to fade. Jughead came out to join her, lighting a cigarette and sipping on his beer.

“Are you not eating?” She asked.

“Archie and I each ate a whole pizza,” he said matter of factly. “You getting tired yet?”

“Yes and no. I just needed a break from the drill sergeant in there,” Betty joked. “Between wedding dress shopping and moving this week, she is getting a little more demanding than normal.”

“I know, she’s had Archie and I move their dresser about three times already only to have us put it back where it was to begin with,” he told her, before taking a long drag off his cigarette.

“Its a nice house though, Jug,” Betty told him. “It’s bright and welcoming. And that little park down the street will be nice when they start popping out kids.”

They turned when they heard Veronica yelling for Archie in the living room. The could see her through the large windows digging through a box in the living room and tossing things on the leather sofa. She was clearly looking for something specific and was not having any luck.

“Maybe I should go help her,” Betty told him.

“Nah,” Jughead told her, looking over his shoulder at the frustrated Latina framed in the picture window. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Lets go for a walk and let her cool off.”

Jughead lead her out the side gate of the yard. She leaned into his side holding onto his arm he had draped across her shoulders, wrapping her other arm around his waist as they walked. They walked together down the street to the small park and followed the path looping around the playground equipment and back out to the street.

“Betts, I know you’re frustrated about the apartment,” he told her. “I know its hard for you to watch Archie and Veronica move forward with planning their wedding and buying a place and talking about starting a family.”

“It’s fine, Jug,” she told him, squeezing him tighter around the waist as they walked. “It will happen for us though right? I mean, I know we haven’t talked about it since I’ve been back. But you still want that right? A life with me?”

“Elizabeth Cooper, I might have to have you checked for a head injury if you seriously think I would want anything other than a life with you,” he assured her. “At some point, I’m going to marry you and we are going to have ten babies and we will grow old together and I’ll chase you around the nursing home for as long as you’ll have me.”

Betty smiled up at him. “Wait, how many babies?”

“Ten.”

“Let’s shoot for like, two,” she told him.

“Three and that’s my final offer,” he told her.

“Deal,” she reached out her hand to shake his. After a firm and too formal handshake, Betty looked up at the front door he had led her to. “Jug this isn’t the right house.”

She began to step back down the front steps when he grabbed her hand. “Are you sure?” He asked. “Because I have this key that fits into this lock perfectly,” he told her through his smirk as he slid the key into the lock and opened the front door for her. Betty stood there with his hand in hers, blinking at the now open door.

“Jug,” she said. “Where did you get a key to this house?”

“From the mortgage broker,” He told her smiling down at her.

“Wait—“

“Surprise?” He told her, unable to read her reaction so far. “Just come in,” he told her as he pulled her into the entryway and flipped on the lights.

“Did you buy a house?” She asked him.

“Please don’t be mad,” he told her, holding both of her hands in his. “I just realized I didn’t want an apartment. I want to build a life with you Betty and when I saw how excited Archie and Veronica were I talked to the developer and looked at some of the houses in the neighborhood and this one was exactly what I had imagined us living in.”

“You bought a house,” she said again. “When did you have time to do all this?”

“About a month ago,” he told her. “With everything going on, I didn’t want to add any more stress to your plate, but trust me, Betts, I wanted to tell you. I’m sorry I didn’t. Please don’t be mad.”

She dropped his hand and looked up at him. She reached for his face, cupping his cheek, and pulled his face down to hers where she kissed him deeply. “This might be the best gift you have ever given me,” she told him in a whisper. Her voice was shaky and he could see her eyes becoming glassy with tears. He held her face, wiping her tears away from her cheeks with his thumbs.

“So you’re not mad?”

“God, Jug, no,” she told him. “If you love it, then I love it.”

They stood in the entry way comforting each other for the next few minutes, enjoying each other’s presence and gazing into each other’s eyes. “So are you going to give me the tour, Jug?”

“Of course, but first,” he told her as he picked her up bridal style and stepped through the threshold and into the living room. “I had to make it official,” he told her as he set her back down on the plush carpet.

He took her to the kitchen and let her explore, opening all the cabinets and the pantry. He opened the door to the garage and flipped on the light, showing her his workspace for his bike and where her vehicle would go. She walked through the living room and ran her fingers over the stone of the fireplace. She looked into the office and half bath on the first floor before climbing the stairs that overlooked the living room. Upstairs were three bedrooms. The first was the smallest and Betty imagined a nursery. The next was bigger. She walked to the window and looked out to the side yard towards Archie and Veronica’s house. A smile crept across her face when she saw that this bedroom window faced one of of the bedroom’s in Archie and Veronica’s house.

The last bedroom was the master. Jughead opened the white double doors leading into their new bedroom. Betty took in the large room with windows facing the back yard. While it wasn’t as big as Veronica’s, they had a walk in closet. She spun in the spot designed for their bed. The ceiling was raised and had a dark fan in the recess. The bathroom was far bigger than she had hoped for. She opened the door and took in the double vanity and soaking tub. The toilet was hidden in its own space with a pocket door and just beyond that was a large walk in shower with two shower heads.

“Jug, this is better than anything I could have hoped for,” she told him, leaning into his chest and wrapping her arms around his waist in a tight hug. “I have to ask though, how did you afford this?”

“I had money saved up,” he told her. “And I may have used the Whyte Wyrm as some collateral.”

“I guess we will need to buy some furniture, unless you wanted to move the old stuff from the apartment at the bar here,” she told him.

“Definitely not,” he told her. “I’m sure the bar furniture should stay in the bar apartment. I think we should start fresh. We have some money to work with, so don’t worry about it too much.”

“I wish we could move in right now,” she told him. “I’m so excited.”

“Lets finish getting our new neighbors moved in and we can talk about doing some shopping tomorrow, okay? Maybe breaking the news to FP that he’s going to be losing his roommates soon.”

“Wait he didn’t know?”

“He knew I had made a big purchase, but I think he assumed I was buying you a ring,” he winked at her.

“Well shame on him for assuming,” she told him.

“I never said he was wrong,” he told her, taking a step back and getting down on one knee. He retrieved a small blue velvet box from his pocket, opening it for her and showing her the sparkling solitaire nestled in the satin cushions.

“Elizabeth Cooper, I wasn’t lying when I told you I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you and I would be an idiot to ever let you go again. I hated myself every day you were gone and I was so grateful that you came back into my life. You are my light in the darkness and without you, there is no me. So I’m asking you, from the bottom of my heart, will you marry me?”


	36. Chapter 36

“Yes, yes, a hundred times yes!” Betty squealed and jumped forward into Jughead’s arms, wrapping her own around his neck and crushing her lips to his, knocking him over and onto the soft carpet of their new bedroom. He rolled over on top of her, slipping his hand under her shirt and pulling her against him as he bruised her lips with his own. She fisted her hands into his hair, pulling him against her and wrapping her legs around his waist.

“Ahem,” Veronica cleared her throat, standing in the doorway with Archie as Jughead and Betty looked up from the floor where they were currently tangled together. “I’m guessing she wasn’t pissed about the house.”

“The complete opposite from what it looks like, Ronnie,” Archie told his fiancé.

“Wait!” Ronnie exclaimed. “What is that?!” She shouted at the sparkling ring on Betty’s left hand that was still wrapped around Jughead as they lay on the floor. “Jug, you never said anything about a ring!”

“I have to keep a few secrets to myself,” he said shyly. He shifted off Betty and sat up with his knees pulled towards his chest, hiding his erection from their friends. Betty’s face was still flushed but she was being pulled up by her friend so she could better inspect her ring.

“Congrats,” Archie told him, sitting down next to his old friend. “I would have made Ronnie stay next door if I would have known. We didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“It’s fine,” Jughead told him. “It will probably be better to christen the house when we have furniture.”

“Speaking of furniture,” Veronica pulled herself away from Betty. “We still need to get some boxes moved around and I know Archie would be happier if you set up the kitchen for us, Betty.”

“We will come back over and finish up,” Betty told them. Archie took the hint and pulled Veronica out of the new couple’s home and back across the front yard to their own home. Jughead paused to lock up the house and armed the security system on his phone before joining the other’s next door.

“Maybe we should put in a gate in the fence between our houses,” Veronica told Betty as they ventured off into the kitchen.

“I think most of Ronnie’s clothes are already put away and I made the bed upstairs already,” Archie told Jughead. “The only thing I’m doing tonight is getting the TV put up and drinking another beer.”

Together, Archie and Jughead mounted the television above the fireplace before falling back onto the sofa, putting their feet up and sipping on their beers while Archie flipped through the channels. Jughead looked over his shoulder into the kitchen and watched the love of his life juggle Veronica’s pots and pans, organizing the cabinets, and showing her friend where the silverware should go. His heart swelled at the thought of her doing the same thing in their own kitchen. He loved the thought of being able to come home to her overnight and relax in their little corner of the world.

Returning home that night, FP was eagerly waiting for them in the living room and jumped up to greet them when they walked in the door.

“So, how was your day?” He asked, looking between Betty and Jughead with a huge smile plastered across his face.

“It was good,” she told him. “Sweaty.”

“I’m a little sore,” Jughead told him, torturing him by avoiding any details that would give away the answer to the question he was obviously dying to ask.

“Oh and Jug bought a house,” Betty told him, a huge smile plastered across her face.

FP’s jaw dropped. “You bought a house?”

“Yeah I know looking for an apartment was getting us no where and I found the perfect place right between the Northside and the Southside so I pulled the trigger and made an offer. I’ve had it for a few weeks but I waited until tonight to tell her about it.”

“This is great, I’m so happy for you both. Its going to be a lot quieter around here though,” FP told them. “And then JB will be off to college next year and it will just be me…”

FP’s eyes began to fill with tears as he trailed off. “We will still come over, dad. We are literally ten minutes away and you can always come over,” Jughead told him, reaching out to hug his father. FP wiped away his tears and took a deep breath in.

“So what’s the plan? Are you running away to your new house immediately or do I still have some time with all my kids under one roof?”

“We are going to go look at furniture tomorrow and probably move in slowly over the next week. We aren’t in a rush to get away from here.”

“Well, I’m happy for you two,” FP told them. “To be honest, that was not the news I was expecting.”

“Oh, well we got engaged too,” Betty told him nonchalantly. FP’s eyes welled up with tear again as he pulled both of them into a hug.

“Its about time! I thought it would have happened when you two graduated from high school. I’ve considered you one of my own for the longest time, Betty, but now we can really make you a Jones,” he told them through tears of joy. FP told them to follow him to the kitchen where he made ice cream sundaes, complete with hot fudge, sprinkles, whipped cream, and a cherry on top, to celebrate.

After more talk of their new home and a promise to invite FP over in the next few days to see it, Jughead and Betty trudged up to the room they had shared for the better part of a decade. “It’s weird, but I think I may miss the princess room,” Jughead told her. “We had a ton of memories in here.”

“I know,” she told him, holding onto his arm with both of hers and resting her head against him. “But now we have a whole new house to make brand new memories in. Like Thanksgiving around the kitchen table, Christmas morning in the living room, Fourth of July parties in the back yard with Archie and Veronica—-”

“You realize my first thought was making love to you on every surface in that house right?” He asked her, looking down at her with his lips curling up at the corners in a smirk.

“Oh, I’m counting on it, Juggie.”


	37. Chapter 37

Betty watched as Jughead threw himself down on the tenth mattress in the store. They had decided to buy a bed first, agreeing that it was time to upgrade from her queen size mattress from their childhood.

“I think this might be the one,” Jughead told her, patting the space next to him on the showroom mattress. Betty followed suit and climbed onto the mattress next to him.

“Do we really need to get a king size? I feel like you’re so far away,” Betty told him.

“Betts, we both know you will end up on my side anyways and its really important to me that we get a bed that my feet don’t hang off of.”

Jughead waved at the timid sales associate, motioning to the mattress they were on before getting up and pulling Betty with him. Jughead had already told the young man who introduced himself to them as Tim as they had walked into the store that he was planning on spending a good amount of money today, but he didn’t want a pushy sales person with them while they shopped. He told him to keep his distance and he would be sure to make sure he made a good amount in commission. So as they shopped, Tim kept his distance, watching for Jughead to signal to him the pieces he wanted to purchase.

“Are you sure this sofa isn’t too big?” Betty told Jughead as she sat back on the modern, gray sectional sofa.

“Its a big living room,” he assured her. “Are you happy with the color?”

“I think it fits us,” she told him as he motioned again to Tim. For the first time in her life, she was not being forced to decorate in pinks, peaches, and baby blues. It was exciting to see this whole other spectrum of colors she could choose from, even if she was going with dark gray for their sofa. She picked out a few throw pillows in bright yellow and laid them out on the showroom model to see how they looked. She waved at Tim again and motioned to the pillows before walking over to where Jughead was looking at coffee tables. He had his eye on dark mocha colored coffee table.

“Betts?” He asked, pointing at the table.

“I like it,” she assured him. “Do you think we should stop for today? I mean, I feel like we are spending a ton of money.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he told her. “I already budgeted for all of this and we haven’t spent nearly what I thought we would.”

She continued shopping, picking out a white farmhouse kitchen table and chairs and some simple white dishes. Together, they decided on silverware and at Jughead’s suggest, copper pots and pans.

Jughead pointed out a bedroom set that was dark, mocha colored wood. It was a simple wood headboard and footboard and came with a dresser and two bedside tables. Betty picked out two brushed, silver lamps for the bedside tables.

“We still need to get towels and bedding and curtains,” Betty reminded him. “But we will have to go somewhere else to get those.”

“Then lets pay for this stuff and we can go get lunch and continue on with our shopping spree,” Jughead told her. He waved over to Tim, motioning him over to where they were standing. “I think we are done for the day, Tim. Go ahead and ring us up.”

Tim went through the list of their purchases with them to make sure he hadn’t missed anything and Jughead set it up to be delivered the next day while Betty was at work. He handed over his credit card and signed for their new furniture, feeling relieved that they had made most of the big purchases and were still under budget.

After lunch, Betty drug Jughead around the big box home store she had already spent more time than she cared to admit at with Veronica. Jughead pushed the shopping cart through the store, looking very out of place. Betty picked out towels and rugs for the bathrooms and a shower curtain for the guest bathroom.

“Jug, this might be the hardest decision you make today,” she told him seriously. “I know you love the pink princess bedding, but its time we pick out something new.”

A small smile found its way across his face at the mention of the pink comforter. “Let’s just do something simple,” he told her.

She pulled a thick, white, down comforter off the shelf and handed it to him. He felt how soft the fabric was and gave her a strong nod as he dropped it into the cart. She found a gray sheet set and tossed them in the cart before pointing Jughead towards the pillows.

“In actuality, we probably only need one since you always fall asleep on me,” he told her.

“That’s probably true,” she said. “But I still like to have the option.” She plucked a few plush pillows off the shelf and added them to the cart. “I think this will get us started.”

Jughead pushed the cart to the register, paying for all of their items. They picked up their bags and took them back to Betty’s car before heading home to the Northside home.

——————————————————————————————————————-

It had only taken a week to get moved into their new home. Jughead picked Betty up from work and drove to the new house. He had spent the entire day moving the rest of their clothing and bathroom accessories over to the new house and it was ready for them to finally spend their first night in it. Betty pulled Jughead into the shower, ready to start christening the new house, one room at a time.

“I love you, Betty Cooper,” he told her through sloppy, soap covered kisses.

She continued to paw at him as he nipped at her neck. “I love you more, Jughead Jones.”

After their shower, Jughead ordered Chinese and they sat on their new sofa in front of the fire and watching a murder mystery on Netflix. Betty let her mind wander and imagined what the rest of their lives would look like; Thanksgiving with their friends and family in a few weeks, sipping hot chocolate on Christmas morning in front of the fire and opening gifts with Jughead, a small summer wedding after Archie and Veronica’s in the back yard, sparklers for the Fourth of July. She was finally feeling settled and ready to start enjoying the life Jughead had promised to give her. She looked down at the solitaire on her finger before leaning over and planting a kiss on her fiancé’s cheek.


	38. Epilogue

Betty and Jughead had decided on an early June wedding. After helping with Archie and Veronica’s they had a good idea of what they were wanting for their own day. Against Veronica’s protests, Betty planned a small backyard wedding. Veronica and Jelly Bean wore dark green dresses and stood opposite of Archie and Sweet Pea in their dark gray suits. For a small wedding, most of the town seemed to come to support the two friends celebrate their union. The black leather Serpent jackets could be seen sprinkled amongst the colorful summer clothing being worn by their other friends and family.

Betty walked down the makeshift aisle with FP on her arm. Her tea length white dress contrasted her tan skin and made her look angelic in the summer sun. A crown of flowers sat atop her loose blonde curls that shimmered in the sunlight. Jughead watched her with tearful eyes as his father walked the love of his life to him. Jughead reached out to take her hand. She handed off her bouquet to Veronica and met eyes with Jughead, squeezing his hand and helping calm his nerves. Dutchie officiated their wedding with heart felt words for the couple. The guests cheered as Jughead was finally told to kiss his bride, dipping her back and raising one fist in the air as “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” began to play.

For the next few hours, they ate and drank, danced, and posed for photos. As the day faded into night, the couple looked out over the yard where everyone was celebrating their marriage.

“This is not where I thought we would be a year ago, Jug,” Betty told him, leaning her head against his shoulder. It was true, a year ago she was miserable in Boston and he was spiraling out of control here in Riverdale. As luck would have it, they had found their way back to each other.

“Me either,” he told her. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“I love you, Jug,” she told him, looking up into his green eyes and brushing a dark curl that had fallen down across his forehead.

“I love you, Mrs. Jones.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for sticking with my first fanfic and making it here to the end. Please leave your comments if you enjoyed this.


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